By Monday Ajegena
Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has called for more private sector participation in the discovery and nurturing of budding sporting talents in the country.
Sule made the call while declaring open the second edition of the Shuaibu Mohammed North Central Table Tennis Tournament on Friday in Lafia.
Represented by Jafaru Ango, the State’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, the governor said that private sector involvement would go a long way in grassroots sports development and give young talents the opportunity to realise their dreams.
According to the governor, sports development is capital intensive and required collaborative efforts from all stakeholders to grow.
He appreciated the convener of the table tennis tournament, Shuaibu Mohammed, for giving the youth the platform to exhibit their talents, thereby shifting their attention away from criminality and other social vices.
Sule urged other spirited individuals and organisations to emulate the convener of the table tennis tournament by investing in the sports sector.
In his remarks, the convener of the tournament, Mohammed, said it was aimed at discovering and nurturing young table tennis talents in the North Central Zone of Nigeria.
“Table Tennis is the sport of my youth, I love it so much, but it is unfortunate that I am seeing it going down.
“My aim is to give back to the society by reviving it because Nigeria has immense talent, but we lack the platform to harness it.
“This tournament will provide a launchpad for young players to showcase their skills and potentially represent our great nation on the global stage.
“We are equally using this platform to promote sports development and youth empowerment, foster unity and friendship among participants,” he said.
He said the participants in tournament were strictly drawn from states in the North Central zone – Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Benue, Plateau, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“There are three categories involved in the tournament, namely, senior category for men and women, junior category for male and female U-14 to U-18, and cadet category for boys and girls from ages 13-10,” he said.
Mohammed said that the winner in each category would go home with a cash prize of N200,000 while the first and second runners up would win N100,000 and N50,000 respectively.
He said that Nasarawa State was chosen to host the tournament owing to the quality of sporting and hospitality facilities, as well as safe environment it provides.
Mohammed, appreciated the government and people of Nasarawa state for the reception, adding that Gov. Sule’s investment in sports development was commendable.
Also speaking at the event, Mr Saka Akin, North Central Zonal Coordinator of National Sports Commission, lauded the convener of the table tennis tournament.
“This is in tune with the vision of the Commission to have Public Private Partnership (PPP) in sports development where individuals with passion, invest resources to grow the sector as the government cannot do it alone.
“It’s a good thing that this tournament is only for the North Central zone so that we can also discover great table tennis players like Haruna Kadri and Atanda Musa from this zone that would do the country proud,” he said. (www.krestnews.com).