Ekeji Charges Co-ordinators To Focus On Grassroots Dev

The Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr Patrick Ekeji, has said that successful grassroots sports development depends on the amount of attention given to it.

Ekeji added that a sustained development of grassroots sports could only be realised through the deployment of quality personnel to man the zones where budding talents abound.

A statement from the commission said that he made the assertion in Abuja while addressing Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors who were newly deployed to the zones as Zonal Coordinators last week.

It said the NSC management was committed to taking sports down to the grassroots in the most practical fashion.

It added that such good intentions could only be matched by the quality of officers posted to the grassroots.

The statement noted that grassroots sports development had been stunted and attributed it to the calibre of personnel that had hitherto manned the affairs at the level.

The statement by Efe Ovuakporie, a Press Officer in the commission, said that Ekeji charged them to see their deployment as a deliberate effort by the NSC to ensure sports development.

It noted that the country was blessed with abundant potential capable of making Nigeria the best in Africa.

It urged the Coordinators to fashion out programmes geared toward capacity building, identifying and harnessing talents which Nigeria was blessed with.

It also charged them to organise age group competitions, seminars, workshops and public enlightenment programmes aimed at attracting the attention of senior state and local government officials to sports activities.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM) inaugurated in 2011 by the former Minister of Sports, Yusuf Suleiman, will conduct a capacity building programme in tertiary institutions from today to April 17.