Sports Will Thrive If Combined With Education- Don

A professor of Sports from the Lagos State University
(LASU), Ademola Onifade, yesterday said that a blend of sports and education
would hasten development of sports in the country.

Onifade told newsmen in Lagos that the development of school
sports was paramount to the country’s sports development.

“ Your sports will thrive as a country, if you base it on
education. Most of the athletes in the advanced countries are University
students; why not in Nigeria?

“It is possible and that is why I said education and sports
must go together. Once they are together there won’t be any problem.

“So if we have a wide base of sports development that is, go
to grassroots sports development, go back to the primary schools and develop
sports, that way you are widening the base and the chances are very high that
in all the sports we’ll have stars.

“There must be a synergy between the Ministry of Education
and Ministry of Sports and it is just a question of working together, closely
together like it used to be in our time.

“When we were in primary school there were so many
competitions even at that level and we were able to follow our educational
career; it did not affect it in any way.”

The professor said only cooperation between the Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of Sports would lead to the development of school
sports.

According to him, professionals in both sectors should be
engaged to evolve programmes that would encourage the development of school
sports across the country.

Onifade is currently the chairman of the Lagos State
University Sports Council.