Coach Blames Lack Of Sponsorship For Indigenous Sports Decline

A Lagos State Traditional Sports coach, Femi Akinsanya, has attributed the limited growth of  indigenous sports to failure of philanthropists to promote them.

Akinsanya, who trains athletes in Traditional Wrestling, called “Kokowa’’ in the local parlance, laid the blame during an interview with Tidesports in Lagos.

He said that regular sponsorship of competitions across the country was the only way to make the sports, including Dambe (Traditional Boxing), Langa, Ayo and Abula popular.

“Failure of individuals and corporate organisations to see meaning in indigenous sports as they see in others has been the central problem militating against the development of all traditional sports.

“If the government, individuals and corporate organisations can create more room for competitions, the future of these sports will be bright,’’ he said.

The coach lamented that philanthropists turned down the association’s appeal for sponsorship for programmes targeted toward talents discovery.

“Traditional wrestling cannot gain its expected ground in our country if the society still shunned their sponsorship, a sport can only develop when there are competitions for athletes.

“All these sports are still struggling to gain ground and what I know is that if we take them serious at our local level, they will soon gain entrance into the global sports scene,’’ he said

According to him, traditional sport has a long history in the country but their growth does not correspond to their years of existence.