By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Investing in the development of youth in Nigeria and in every where, is an investment in the future of the society. This is because the youth hold the key to the development and sustenance of the society.
This accounts for reason, government and other stakeholders at the national and international levels take steps towards equipping the younger generations with the requisite skills to ensure continuity as the older generation fades away.
In Akwa Ibom State, Governor Udom Emmanuel is adopting a novel and multi-pronged approach towards youth empowerment and ski development. The Governor believes that sports development is one of the key drivers of his socio-economic mandate. According to him, “Sports is not just for recreation but as a veritable tool for employment generation.”
Statistics have shown that the hospitality and tourism sector, particularly hotels receive a great boost each time sports events such as football matches and golf tournaments are hosted in the state.
A former Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Udoh once said that, “Our Governor is spending so much money on sports because he wants to alleviate poverty, create jobs and wealth for youths in the state and beyond. Every weekend that sport is being held in the state, many hotel rooms are fully booked and occupied.
In line with his ‘Dakadda’ philosophy which aims at engraving and fine-tuning the mindset and passion of Akwa Ibom people to embrace hard work, the spirit of enterprise and excellence in all areas of human endeavours, Governor Emmanuel has spared nothing in investing in sports development.
For instance, the governor In 2021, allocated the sum of N1,946,596,250 to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, showing an improvement in previous year allocations.
He has invested huge resources into what is now known as Sports Tourism, and has created the enabling environment for the discovery and nurturing of budding talents. The Governor has sunk in enormous resources into the building of sporting infrastructure/facilities. He has also provided financial supports to state-owned football clubs and sponsoring state, national and international sports tournaments.
What Governor Emmanuel’s led administration did when he took over in 2015 was consolidate on the previous administrations’ strides of building the state-of-the-art sporting complex in each of the 10 federal constituencies of the state. According to the Governor, the idea was to discover and groom young talents at the grassroots. This bold step has paid off as the state is currently churning out young stars in various areas of sports.
The reconstruction of the Eket Sports Stadium is one of the key achievements of the Udom Emmanuel administration. Currently, work on the 17,000-seater capacity stadium is about 100 percent completion as the Stadium has been roofed, artificial pitch and tartan tracks already installed.
The Eket Sports Stadium built to meet international standards would ease off pressure on the Uyo Township Stadium currently under reconstruction upgrading to a 10,000-seater sports stadium to complement the 30,000-seater Godswill Akpabio Stadium, also referred as the Nest of Champions in Uyo.
Besides the intention to reduce pressure off the Nest of Champions, the reconstruction and upgrading of Uyo Township Stadium is hoped to provide more training grounds and facilities for the growing army of sports men and women in the state.
The Udom Emmanuel administration is painstakingly maintaining and improving funding to the state-owned football clubs namely Akwa United and Dakkada FC with Akwa United holding the Niger Professional Football League (NPFL) and defending champion in the country.
The state also has several teams in the Nigerian National League which is Nigeria Division 2. These teams include the Ibom Youth FC,Vandrezzer FC, FC One Rockers, Coffine FC etc and a host of other club sides such as Ibom Angeles Football Club (women team).
The enormous moral and financial supports rendered by the government of the day have gingered state-owned football clubs to excel and winLaurels for the state. For instance, Akwa Utd FC, fondly called the ‘Promise Keeper’ is currently the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title holder, had earlier won Aiteo Cup in 2017 for the State.
It could be recalled that Governor Emmanuel being a sports-loving Governor had set up and inaugurated 30 Sports Committees including Para-Soccer Sports in the state with seasoned Sports men and women as chairmen and secretaries.
During his first term in office, Governor Emmanuel initiated and introduced School Sports tagged “Akwa Ibom Youth Sports Festival” for Secondary Schools Students, which provided an avenue for the discovery of new talents.The competition which had 26 sporting activities for the secondary schools cadre, 13 for primary schools level and 12,000 participants across the 31 local government areas seems purposed to meet Governor Emmanuel’s ambitious goals.
According to him, in the next six (6) years, Akwa Ibom should produce between five (5) and six (6) players for the national team. He also pledged that Akwa Ibom would not rest until it produces the likes of Serena Williams, the Usain Bolts, the Ronaldos and the Messis of this World. So far, two editions of this festival have been organized.
The Governor also sponsored indigenous Coaches to attend International Championship Refreshers’ Courses abroad. One of the coaches, and former Director of Sports in the State’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. Lawrence Iqua-Ibom is now an International Weight Lifting Referee who featured in the last Commonwealth Olympic Games.
Governor Udom Emmanuel’s giant strides in sports development are inexhaustible. His administration hosted the South-South eliminationof National Youth Games, sponsored Akwa Ibom Contingents for the recently held National Sports Festival in Edo alias “Edo 2020”. He also hosted the 11th Nigerian Navy Games and Nigerian Airforce Inter-command Combat Games in Uyo.
Conscious of the need to put the right man on the right job to achieve the right results, the Governor appointed a FIFA/CAF Commissioner, andseasoned Sports Journalist in the person of Elder Paul Bassey as the Chairman of Akwa Utd FC, who also doubles as the Senior SpecialAssistant on Youth and Sports Matters to the Governor.
Allowing and encouraging individuals and groups to run and manage Sports clubs in the State thereby opening more opportunities for the budding talents. Already sons and daughters of the state are excelling in various areas of sports.
While congratulating Akwa Ibom United FC for winning the NPFL, the Governor stated, “it does not only begin and end in football, if you look at when we came in our first term when we started with our 5-point agenda, you could see under the youth developments that we expressed a lot desire to more.
“This is what actually motivated us to set up Sports Centres in the 10 Federal Constituencies to train our people not only in football, youcan see the first Junior Commonwealth Gold Medalist, Aniekeme is from Akwa Ibom he came out of our summer sports championship,” he stated.
To further boost the moral of Akwa United FC players and management after winning the NPFL Title in 2020 league, the Governor had recently announced and donated 100 million Naira cash and parcels of land to the players and management when he received them at Government House, Uyo. These donations were rolled out to the club inspite of it loosing at the early leg of the Continental Football match played against Algerian team in Algeria.
