Sports
Rivers To Unveil Blueprint On School Sports
The Rivers State Government will soon unveil a blue-print on school sports development.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on School Sports, Aribitonye Okiri made this known, over the weekend, in a chat with Tidesports in his office in Port Harcourt.
He stated that already, a contingent of intellectuals, stakeholders and philanthropists have been invited to draft the blue print on school sport development in the state, subject to ratification by the Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Okiri said as his office is saddled with the responsibility of school sports development; he would ensure that relevant stakeholders in education and sport sector been consulted to achieve the aim, as he intend to engage youths in schools to learn with their educational curriculum in line with the National School Sport Federation.
He noted that budding talents would be discovered and harnessed for future engagements as well as further help their physical and mental capacity.
Okiri said that he intends to use the power of sport to create wealth and also as a means to engage youths, dissuade them from social vices, restiveness and to build friendship and peaceful coexistence.
The Governor’s aide hinted that plans were on for a school sports implementation policy that would look at the past and create capacity for the state, stressing that there are enormous sporting potentials in the schools and need to collaborate with the various sport Associations, as sport is capital intensive.
According to him, investment in sport is one of the biggest brands in the world and therefore all hands must be on deck as everybody has a part to play in sport development.
Okiri further hinted that the office is in talking terms with ANCOOPS both public and private, liaising with the Ministry of Education as they are the Supervising Authorities, Rivers State School Board and Universal Basic Education (UBE) with a view to getting the best in collective page as to identify challenges and see how to attract attention to solving those problems inorder to achieve the goal of development school sport in the state.
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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