Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo has charged the State Sports Commission Board to develop 10,000 athletes in different fields of sports in the next five years.
Governor Obaseki gave the charge while inaugurating the Yusuf Alli led Sports Commission in Benin.
He admonished the Commission to pursue policies that would ensure that Edo dominated the country in the development and training of athletes.
“Edo is synonymous with sports, we owe what we met on the ground to the next generation. We have to catch them young, we have to rethink sports with all resources we have.
“We have to catch them in schools and those outside school. Success to me will be when we have more than ten thousand Edo people, young men and women, who are so good in sports and can find opportunities locally, nationally and globally.
“People need to prepare for the global market, why can’t we start now? We just have to catch them young whether it is in swimming, tennis, basketball, table tennis, handball or football.
“We should be able to say in five years’ time, we have trained between ten thousand to twenty thousand, and if one thousand of those become global stars, see what that would do for us,” he stated.
Obaseki also tasked the sports Commission Board to tap into funding from the private sector to develop infrastructure and drive sporting activities.
He called for total reforms and transparency in the administration of sports associations.
According to him, “Private capital is fundamentally different from the way government capital behaves.
“There is a high level of transparency because anybody who puts money down wants to see through where that money is going to and how that money is being spent.
“This is because, if they don’t see it, you can’t attract more. So, we can’t run the associations the way we used to.
“Sports is sports, politics is politics, let’s separate them. Sport is professional, let’s bring that level of professionalism to it.
“Edo today is the number one cricket team in Nigeria through private sector spending. I want to see the same in swimming, in gymnastics, in volleyball and Handball.
“I want to walk around neighbourhoods and see the availability of courts; courts for different sports, and I believe there are private people ready to make that investment if we give them a clear direction on how to come in.
The Edo State Sports Commission has Yusuf Alli, a one-time captain team Nigeria and National Long Jump record holder as Chairman and Sabina Chikere as Permanent Secretary.
Others include Chairman, Stealing Bank, Asiun Ighodalo, Chairman, Sterling Bank; Uyi Akpata, President Cricket Federation of Nigeria; and former Lagos and Edo Football Association chairman, Frank Illaboya.
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