Sports
Sports Minister Joins Sokoto Guber Race
Minister of Sports, Yusuf Suleiman has joined the race for the Sokoto Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket.
Suleiman picked the expression of interest and nomination form from the party’s National Headquarters last Wednesday in Abuja.
Suleiman’s entry brought the total number of aspirants to three.
Other aspirants who had collected nomination forms earlier were the incumbent Gov. Aliyu Wamakko and Sen. Umar Gada.
Suleiman told newsmen that his mission was to develop the state.
“I am here to answer the call of my people, to pick nomination form for the governorship of Sokoto State.”
The former Minister of Transport explained that it took him time to pick the form.
“I am still a serving cabinet member of this administration and to take such a step requires not only my personal judgment and conviction but everybody that is involved in this process,’’ Suleiman said.
“And today we are here because we believe we can heal and reconcile the good people of Sokoto state.
“We are here because we believe that our participation in this race will be for the good and in the best interest of the people of Sokoto State”.
“Sokoto State needs development and I think any good thinking person from Sokoto state who has the capacity, no matter how small, needs to join hands to make sure that we realize the potential that we believe our state has.
“Sokoto can be one of the best states if properly guided; if properly managed and I know of my competence, and I know of my skills and I know of what I can bring and am sure that with the support of Allah, we can make Sokoto a model state,” Suleiman said.
On Nigeria’s recent woeful performance in sporting activities, he said there was need to develop the culture of grooming young athletes to replace the ageing ones.
“Every Nigerian is bordered, every Nigerian is worried but I have always said it. The degeneration in Nigerian football is not just in football, it is general in Nigerian sports as a result of some kind of neglect in terms of athlete replacement policy.
“ We are having ageing athletes and we have not done anything properly to replace them and I think the sports environment in Nigeria generally needs to be improved if we are going to genuinely be competitive globally,’’ Suleiman added.
He said that small countries were investing more in sporting programmes and activities and Nigeria needed to wake up and do commensurate investment “if we are to continue to excel globally in terms of sports”.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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