The president of Nigerian Rugby Football Federation (NRFF), Dr Ademola Are has faulted people calling for sports development at the grassroots without adding the need for good facilities, as he insists it cannot be done in the absence of adequate infrastructure.
Dr Are made this observation in an exclusive interview with Sports247, during which he posited that many Nigerians and analysts are merely paying lip service to the issue of hunting for talents from the grassroots.
The fair-skinned administrator and former zonal director of the Federal Ministry of Sports in Kaduna also slammed rich personalities who buy up public fields in order to build houses or erect commercial structures ar rhe detriment of community-based sports activities.
The two-term NRFF president since 2021 declared emphatically, “I don’t know what’s going on in this country regarding sports infrastructure. It’s not like that in the UK.
“Over there, every local government area has its own sports facilities … swimming pool, football pitch, tracks for athletics, many things. Everything you need is there; so that children within that community will have opportunities to do sports.
“In Nigeria, we say we want our children to do sports, we say we want to hunt for talents at the grassroots, but the facilities for it are not there. The fields and other open spaces that we have are taken over by rich people building mansions and estates.”
Are, who was last year voted in as the first vice-president of the Union of West African Rugby Federations (UWARF) and received an Order of Excellence during the 170th anniversary of Baptist Academy, Lagos, where he was their sports prefect as a student, called for practical efforts in the discovery of Nigeria’s hidden talents.
“How do we develop sports from the community level? It’s not by mouth. It’s through what you have physically present on the ground.
“Even our stadiums are mostly dilapidated, while those that are operational are not open freely to talented athletes.
“We should have a situation whereby people are allowed to come in once they show their involvement in one sport or the other. Let them come and train. There shouldn’t be any unnecessary restrictions.
“Just give them normal rules and regulations to guide them so they can use the facilities regularly,” said Are, who was instrumental to the commencement of National Youth Games (NYG) before retiring from the federal civil service.
*Check Sports247 special interview column, UNSCRIPTED, for the complete package of our chat with Dr Ademola Are.
