The Need for Effective Talent Discovery in Sports.

The Need For Young Talents to be Encouraged
The Need For Young Talents to be Encouraged

Nigeria’s dismal performance at the London 2012 Olympic is nothing to write home about. This is as a result of improper preparation for the competition. Notably enough, is the lack of grass root sports development programmes. Hence, replacing our ageing athletes take longer than necessary, sometimes spanning longer than the time it takes to organise two successive Olympics. It baffles me how the relevant authorities will only start preparation when the Olympics is only few years away. Such attitude is going to take Team Nigeria nowhere.
According to a Director in the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut, while representing the Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, at the grand finale of the Premier Lotto Lagos Athletic Championship, five states of the federation, Ekiti, Delta, Kwara, Ondo, and Lagos States have revamped their school sports competitions. I personally don’t think these five states would carry the work load of the Nation’s requirement for young athletes. Therefore the need for sports competition at grass root level should be further stressed; also Governments at various levels must partake if our performance on the world stage must improve.
Gone are the days of Inter- house Sports competitions in secondary schools. Most secondary schools in the country today don’t have Physical Education (PE) teachers. Absence of sports facilities in schools are among factors making our youths lose interest in sports. Government’s participation, if present, is not properly channeled. As a result, most of our athletes fend for themselves. Guess you now know the reason why the successful ones naturalise to other countries.
The director also said that the Minister of Sports, Abdullahi, has put in place a policy that would create an opportunity for athletes discovered to be invited to national camp three times a year in four centres across the country under the tutelage of renowned coaches. Meanwhile all secretaries of sports federations has been directed to embark on school sports programme. If such instructions are heeded, Nigeria is likely on the part to glory in future events. Failure to abide by the necessary procedures and code of ethics, sports in general will continue to be less relevant to an average Nigerian.