By Andrew Abah, Abuja
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Grassroots Sports, Hon. Adeboye Adeyinka said they are working round the clock to revive both school sports and all facilities across the country.
He made this disclosure recently during an exclusive interview in his office at the Package A of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
Hon. Adeyinka said before now, schools had facilities, where talents were discovered right from the primary and secondary schools but today, they have all perished.
“Before now, we have primary schools that have standard facilities, likewise the secondary schools, all those ones have perished. This is what we are trying to revive,” he assured.
The SSA further revealed that they are working assiduously to turn around facilities in the country. He gave an instance of what they are doing in Kwara State, he said the facilities there will be the first of their kind.
Even though he didn’t want to put the blame of poor infrastructure on anybody, he wondered what past administrators were doing, allowing most of the infrastructure to be in bad shape.
He however assured that they are not only going to use the template of Morocco where they do not only have standard and beautiful stadia all over their country but ensure that they are well-maintained.
His words: “Some journalists came to me and asked what we are seeing in Morocco, can’t we have the facilities in our country, I was shocked and a little bit nervous because the sports have been managed by technocrats in the past but see where we are, I am not blaming anybody, but for the first time, we have administrators that have been in sports for years, that have played the game or participated, who are now in charge of sports, facilities are very key.
In Kwara, the chairman of the club and myself are trying to make the facilities there the first of their kind. In Lagos State now, they have started working on their facilities. “The Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has started work on the Teslim Balogun and Agege Township Stadia. I was there four days ago.
“Work is also ongoing in Kano, Kaduna and Oyo States and look at what they have in Ogun State. All these stadia are being brought back to life, and we want to make sure that the renewed mandate of Mr. President is being achieved. I have the belief that all our facilities will come back to where they used to be, where we were known as one of the best in facilities,” he concluded.
