Shehu Sani charges Nigeria to look beyond football
Senator Shehu Sani has urged the Federal Government to prioritize other sports such as hockey, table tennis, and wrestling if Nigerian football players are not ready to place the country on the global map of top footballing nations. Sani who represented Kaduna South in the Senate made the call while declaring open a one-day hockey […]
Shehu Sani charges Nigeria to look beyond football
Senator Shehu Sani has urged the Federal Government to prioritize other sports such as hockey, table tennis, and wrestling if Nigerian football players are not ready to place the country on the global map of top footballing nations.
Sani who represented Kaduna South in the Senate made the call while declaring open a one-day hockey novelty match organized by the Government Science College Kagara Old Students Association at the Niger State College of Education, Minna
The Special Guest of honour rewarded the 1984 set with N1m for emerging victorious while the runners-up received N500,000.
He said the event marked the beginning of a campaign to revive hockey in Nigeria.
“We place much emphasis on football and football takes most of our country’s allocation to the sports sector. But we should know that if other sports in the country will have 10 percent of what has been allocated to football, we will achieve good medals.
“Like Olympics now; it is not only about football; it is about hockey, wrestling, taekwondo and so many other sports including Table Tennis. So, other sports need to be given priority.
“Too much concentration on football has led us to nowhere today. If we cannot go to the FIFA World Cup, we should be able to go to the Hockey World Cup or Wrestling World Championship or World Athletics Championship.
“How can a country of 230 million people go to the Olympics and come back without even a bronze medal while Jamaica and Kenya came back with up to eight medals?”
The former federal lawmaker also charged the government to make sports a key component of the education system to enable early discovery and nurturing of sporting talents.