Friday, March 29, 2024

Dalung urges Niger govt to adopt Hockey

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has been urged to  adopt the game of hockey as
the state’s sports pet project.
Youth and Sports Minister Barrister Solomon Dalung made the appeal at the weekend during the
final of the Hockey Federation’s Super League between Niger Flickers and Police Machines
held at the Abuja National Stadium.
Barrister Dalung implored other state governments to invest in any sport of their choice to
reduce  restiveness in their states.
“Your excellency, I want to passionately appeal to you and various state governments to
develop interest in sports. The young people are the agitative constituency. The young
people are restive but once you create an enabling environment for them, there will be no
more security challenges. The best we can do is to deploy resources to sports development
and engage these young people to be great champions, then there will be stability in this
country.
“Today, wrestling is like a personal possession of Bayelsa state. Their state government has
deployed resources to Wrestling. No matter how many times you organize a wrestling
championship, Bayelsa will win because they have invested in it. If Niger state has been
winning in hockey, what will stop us from going to Niger as the home of hockey. I therefore
implore your excellency, to deploy resources to building of infrastructure in Niger state,
support the hockey team, open up the space and give football a very good challenge.
“I look forward to when hockey will be competing shoulder to shoulder with basketball and
football.”
The Minister also congratulated the new board of the Nigeria Hockey Federation and charged
them to embark  on a wide search of membership for the hockey federation.
“There is so much for Nigeria to make in sports and government alone cannot drive sports to
success. The private sector is a cardinal and key partner in sports development. We will
create the enabling environment to ensure that the so-called autonomy is made perfect.
Federations will be autonomous and they will source for funds and sponsorship, organize
their competitions while government will continue to support with grants”.
Barrister Dalung added that after the inauguration, the newly elected federations will
henceforth make public their books of accounts so that any interested investor will be
guaranteed transparency and accountability.

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