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Asiwaju Tinubu’s Capacity Can Tremendously Improve Sports In Nigeria – Mouktar

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our President-elect has the golden touch to put Nigerian sports on a high pedestal taking off from his predecessor, where President Buhari stopped.. says FCT FA Chairman

He gave this insight in a special interview he had with The Nation Newspaper.

“I don’t have to be a Minister to tell you that we need to provide more standard infrastructure and facilities for our number one sport (football) as well as renovate the existing ones,”

“It will be massive to put up a national training centre in Abuja that will take in all the national teams rather than continue to pay out billions of Naira to hotels every year to house the training camps of the country’s teams.”

When we talk about young, dynamic and fresh ideas that are mobile not stagnant in running administrative duties, especially that of sports and football in particular, one man stands out currently in Nigeria, Abba Mouktar.

Abba Adam Mouktar Mohammed is the incumbent FCT FA Chairman for those who don’t know yet, and he’s also the vice-chairman Nigeria Teqball Federal (NIGTEQ), a game he was the major facilitator to it emergence in Nigeria.

According to Mouktar, there’s a big room for improvement and the President-elect can turn the fortunes of football around by proficiently putting square pegs in square holes. He further said;

“I am also a major advocate of grassroots development because I have always believed that with the right foundation, football in this country could go on to fulfill its potentials both as a business and as a sport.”

“We must reward competence and excellence because Nigeria Football only deserves the best in terms of national team call-ups, coaches for the national teams as well as preparations for major competitions.”

In recent times, there’s been growing concerns over the dilapidated state of our facilities and the attitude of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development towards revamping them especially the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos which lost one of the floodlights some days ago due to the rains.

It was even alleged that the Sport minister Sunday Dare was asking for N21Billion to revamp the facility.
In his opinion, Mr Mouktar said that there are no short cut to maintenance of facilities, however that the in-coming government of Asiwaju Tinubu must prioritize giving the available facilities facelift and also structure maintenance. This will help keep them in good shape for usage over a long period of time.

“As a country, we lack a maintenance culture and this is what the Minister (Sunday Dare) met when he assumed office,” he also said..
”He did well with the limited resources and time at his disposal and he was also creative by involving the private sector to renovate some of the country’s major sporting edifices like the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja as well as the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.”

“By now we ought not to be just occupied with renovating the sporting infrastructure, but also providing more facilities for our teeming youths. “

Mouktar said there’s a workable template already that can be copied by the in-coming government in other to bring fillip no only to football but sports generally in the country;

“It was most satisfying to get the Bwari Stadium refurbished with an up-to-date Astroturf and other standard facilities. This will help the development and promotion of football outside the Abuja Municipality as the Bwari Area Council and beyond will be a lot better for this.

A short clip of the said facility the FCT FA chairman talked about

“We need to sustain this model to reach the people and I would want the in-coming government to focus more on provision of sporting facilities across the country in order to take off restive youths away from the streets.”

“Government must continue to provide the enabling environment for football to thrive.”

“ But for sports to create jobs and deliver dividends for investors, it must be driven by the private sector, just as it did with Nigerian music and Nollywood.”

“I am confident the new government will encourage the private sector participation to make Nigerian football as well as other sports, big business. “

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