…says sports curb cultism, other crimes
Ben Ogbemudia, Abuja
Crown Prince of Benin Kingdom, Prince Ezelekhae Ewuare on Thursday said youths’ engagement in sporting activities can help curb cultism and other criminality in Nigeria.
Prince Ewuare said in line with that vision, he had established eight gyms across Edo state in a bid to boost fitness and grassroots development of sports.
While pointing out the importance of sports in curbing cultism in the state and beyond, he appealed for the Commission’s support in actualizing his lofty goals for sports at the grassroots.
Dikko however assured him of the Commission’s support.
In Dikko’s opinion, the involvement of royalty in sports will help to take the vision and mission of the Commission down to the grassroots.
“We will set up a small team here (NSC) to upscale what you are doing. We have experts here who will give appropriate advice and guidance in the short, medium and long-term “
“The energy of the youths needs to be channeled towards doing more positive things and sports will do exactly that.”
While espousing this point, Dikko observed that sports is not all about participation and medals.
His words, “Sports is a veritable tool to solve youths’ restiveness. All these issues of cultism and violence will be tackled when the youths are provided avenues to burn their energy through sports. The security agencies had statistics to support the fact that when we played night games in the NPFL those days, crime rate reduced in the society.”
To boost grassroot development, Dikko reiterated that school sports will be revived at all levels.
“We plan to have centers of excellence from the primary school up to the university levels, so when we discover a six-year-old who is good, we take him to a specific primary school and later follow him up to specific secondary schools and universities. These schools will be supported with the necessary facilities and well-trained coaches”, he added.
Highpoint of the visit was the presentation of Benin bronze head to the NSC helmsman.
