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Tuesday, 23 October 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan Opens Retreat On Sports To Effect Drastic Review Of The Nation's Sports Policies





 President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday opened a Presidential Retreat on Sports with the aim of effecting a drastic and holistic review of the nation's sports policies

Pointing out that no nation could afford to overlook the relevance of sports to National development and well-being, the President stressed that there was a pressing need to put in place a framework for achieving National Sporting excellence


Though the President's mind set is that this retreat is not being convened to apportion blame or point accusing fingers, already some presentations at this event are doing just that

Government's commitment beyond this retreat is to say the least a tall order: to become the best sporting nation, among the top 4 nations in the Commonwealth and ultimately rule the world


It is difficult to move away from apportioning blame as the presentation of Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi demonstrates

He believes inadequate planning and what he describes as a credibility deficit has been the bane of Nigerian Sports but stresses that  is no excuse for corporate organizations to shy away from supporting sports


Outlining the UK experience, former British Sports Minister, Sir Gerry Sutcliffe says his country went from winning just one medal in 1996 to overwhelming success in the 2012 London Olympics through massive funding of Sports especially in schools and communities

  
And relating the South African experience, President of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Gideon Sam said governments should take control and designate special centers that specialized in different sports


Stakeholders believe poor management, corruption inadequate funding and faulty training procedures are among the problems besetting sports


And amidst the hard talk what shines through is that this will just be another talk shop if steps are not taken to implement the decisions reached 



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