NSC, NOA COLLABORATE TO FOSTER NATIONAL UNITY, PRIDE THROUGH SPORTS
Sports as an agent of national unity was on the front burner on Thursday when National Sports Commission Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko welcomed a delegation from the National Orientation Agency (NOA). The NOA delegation was led by Director of Special Duties and State Coordination David Akojie who represented the NOA Director-General Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu.
There was a consensus among all parties that the key thing that binds the nation together is sports and the sector must be strengthened to harness its potentials in fostering oneness and nation building.
Mallam Dikko said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has duly recognised sports as our national asset. What this means is that sports is as important as oil that is the nation’s major revenue generator. So we have to give sports due attention.
“When we do sports, nobody cares where you are coming from. The Super Falcons are playing in the final of the WAFCON on Saturday. When they win, nobody cares who is the captain or who scored whether they are from north or south. At that moment, we are all happy as a nation.”
He advocates for closer ties between NSC and NOA to create the sense of national pride and patriotism in younger athletes.
“We are aggressively reviving schools sports at all levels. We are having many of these schools sports competitions scattered across the country from the primary to secondary and tertiary institutions. We have to work closely with the NOA to deepen this understanding right from childhood.
“We have to make our schools sports platforms available to NOA so that you will be at these venues to inculcate the sense of national identity, pride and patriotism into these athletes from that early stage. It is at that stage that it has to be done, not when they are full adults. Let them grow with that orientation”, he added.
Mallam Dikko pointed out that more sensitisation will be done in the national camps.
“As we speak we have athletes scattered across all sports in many countries representing Nigeria in various competitions. From the WAFCON in Morroco to the Afrobasket in Côte d’Ivoire, African Schools Games in Algeria, University Games in Germany, para badminton in Wales etc. and this is the case all year round. Thus In these various camps, as the athletes are coming to the camp we will be handing over these copies of the national anthem to them. But I think people are now more conversant with the national anthem”, he concluded.
Earlier Mr. Akojie, representing the NOA DG, had expressed the Agency’s appreciation of the innovations brought into the sporting sector by the Mallam Shehu Dikko-led Commission. He buttressed the importance of sports in our national existence and the need for collaborations to strengthen the ties.
Highpoint of the visit was the presentation of 5,000 copies of the national anthem and the original national flag to the NSC Chairman.
