By Jamilu Uba Adamu
We all know that the benefits of taking part in sports or being a sportsman/woman is to stay actively engaged which will in turn keep us physically fit and healthy.
And there is no doubt that sports or sporting activities are widely known and recognized as agents or tools that help shape our minds and keep us active and physical all the time.
Therefore, lack of sporting facilities in any society is dangerous to the survival of that society as its members’ risks being attacked by diseases. Thus, the importance of sporting facilities cannot be overemphasized.
This means that the deterioration of existing sporting facilities and the erection of buildings on the scanty football pitches in the state is the contributing factor that pushes some of our youths towards unhealthy and even dangerous habits, such as drug pushing, violence etc.
Last week, while going through DailyTrust Newspaper I came across a calamitous story of a young boy who was stabbed by his neighbor for playing football in the street.
According to the story, it was one, a wanzami, a local barber named Alhaji Hassan that met Muhammad, the victim and his friends playing football in the neighborhood and tried to stop them, alleging that they were spoiling the frontage of his house.
An eye witness confirmed that the young man and his friends moved to the next street and continued playing.
But not satisfied with their relocation, the Wanzami chased them with a knife and stabbed Muhammad on the neck.
The above incident is in fact very disheartening and worrisome, because I see playing football as an essential part of some of our youth’s daily lives and that is why they are mostly using open fields, empty roads and school fields to play.
It is a fact that Kano city with its high population of teeming youths, most of whom find solace in playing football every evening with their friends anywhere in the state.
And it is a fact that the availability of football pitches in their neighborhood is lacking as most of the primary school pitches which were the only available football fields are now filled with buildings which makes using them impossible.
In the late eighties and up to early 2000s there were primary and secondary school football pitches all across Kano city where every evening youth went there and to their satisfaction which is lacking today.
Nowadays with the growing population most of those primary schools’ football pitches don’t exist anymore and consequently leave our teeming youth with no options but to play on the street of the neighborhood.
It is a fact that the youth need an outlet to vent out their energies and where they were not provided with such sporting facilities in their communities, there are chances that they will be inclined to vent it out on the streets in the form of street crime such as phone snatching, gang fight (Yan daba) etc.
And that is why during their separate speeches at the stat’e’ chapter of Sports Writers Association calendar launching which took place at the Press center Kano, the former Kano State commissioner of information who is also SWAN patron Alh. Nuhu Danburan and Kano State Football Association Chairman Dr. Sharu Rabiu Inuwa Ahlan plead on the need on the government to redevelop Mahaha Sports Complex and make standard football pitches available throughout the state.
They called on the Kano State Governor His Excellency Eng. Abba Kabir Yusuf through the acting commissioner of Sports Hon. Safiyanu Kachako to develop sporting facilities across the state so as to prevent the recurrence of the Rijiyar Lemo’s sad incidence.
The state government must be made to understand that sports breed peace and unity. It also helps in curbing social vices by positively engaging the youth in sports which will possibly make them earn a living and have a bright future.
Adamu is Kano based freelance sports writer can be reach via
Jameelubaadamu@yahoo.com or 08032078489