Sports ministry tasks federations on grassroots sports development

The Director of Grassroots sports development in the Ministry of Youths and Sports, Dr. Ademola Are has charged sports federations to pay priority attention to harnessing talents that abound in Nigeria.

Addressing the press recently, the Director noted that even as talents abound in the country, there have not been concerted effort on the part of most sports federations to identity and develop such raw talents.

He cited the case of swimming and gymnastics and said they are sports that need to do more in the area of talent identification and development.

“The major problem we are having, like Mr. President noted when we visited the Villa, he asked why are we not taking part in multi medal winning sports like gymnastics and swimming?.

“You see until the federations are up and doing and invest their time, we won’t make any progress. The facilities are there for swimming. They need to make deliberate efforts to identify the talents.

“We have swimmers everywhere. They have to bring these children together. They need to know that there is no magic winning except constant training. It is not when we have a programme two to three months to the time, they start bringing the children together.

“No there should be concerted efforts especially in swimming and gymnastics. These federations should go out and scout for these children. Go to the riverine areas. The children are there,” he said.

Are maintained that it is only when the federations begin to identify and develop the budding talents that Nigeria will once again enjoy podium success. about