Even though the position of the commissioner in charge of sports and youth development is yet to be announced by Kano state government, the recent appointment of the Special Adviser of Youth and Sports to the governor and that of the Kano Pillars FC Interim Management Committee by the Executive Governor of Kano state is a good, commendable and welcome development.
What remains now is the appointment of the Executive Chairman and Members of the Kano State Sports Commission, the commission responsible for coordinating and developing sports throughout the state.
For the position of the commissioner, the governor is at liberty to appoint anybody of his choice from his political group to head the ministry because there are many top level civil servants in the ministry to guide and work hand in hand with whoever will serve as the commissioner.
But even with this development, it is important that a commissioner for sports is appointed without delay since bookmakers see a cabinet without a representative of sports as not a complete cabinet. This is because of its importance and the mass followership sports have in the society especially a youth dominated society like ours.
Bookmakers also stated that regular sporting activities helps prevent and treat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and breast and colon cancer.
Besides, sports also helps prevent hypertension, overweight and obesity and can improve mental health, quality of life and well-being. This and many more points made it necessary for the governor to give a second chance to the area. So sports is very important and I don’t think or see any sector more important than sports.
But for the position of the Executive Chairman and Members of the Kano State Sports Commission, His Excellency has to know that they are no go areas for people who are novice or unknowledgeable about sports They are exclusively for those that are highly knowledgeable in sports.
So only people who understand sports, its antics and its politics and its administration should be given the opportunity to serve in the commission. Because it is an agency for professionals and not for everybody because it is results oriented and importance.
It may interest his Excellency the Executive Governor, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf that Kano State Sports Commission which was hitherto Kano State Sports Council was created some years ago with the aim of developing and transforming sports throughout the state.
The commission was created specifically to change the affluence and direction of sports in the state, but sadly, its achievements since creation to date are minimal and hardly seen due to so many understandable reasons.
This is because it was charged with several responsibilities ranging from encouragement of massive participation of the state in all forms of sports in the country, encouraging amateurs’ games and improving their performance all through.
The commission is also expected to organize and hold matches, competition or contests, between amateurs for the physical well-being of the people of the state by frequently establishing and maintaining sporting centers for the training of individuals and instructors or organizers of any form of sports. It is also to facilitate and supports sports development at the grassroots levels and assisting in the improvement of standard of performance in all forms of sports;
Your Excellency sir, it is also vested with the powers to appoint or dismiss any chairman and members of any Sports Associations that is found wanting. It can also assist financially and otherwise any sports organization, clubs, schools sports and associations or other bodies for the purpose of encouraging the participation in all forms of sports among others.
But as I stated above the successes and achievements of Kano State Sports Commission since creation to date are minimal and hardly seen due to so many obvious reasons which may not be unconnected with the way and manner the previous administration cash-stave the commission and failed to deploy necessary man power to the commission to enables it to functions as expected.
It was on record that on many occasions, some national and international events which the state needed to be present and participated in were turned down due to lack of funds or failure to release the funds in good times.
The commission’s failure to organize many sporting events like Inter-Primary Games or Inter-Schools Sports for both senior and junior secondary schools and Mini-State Sports Festival were its greatest undoing because it is through which sports men and women are massively discovered or produced.
Therefore, for the commission now to function as expected and provide a desired result, the government of His Excellency Abba Kabir Yusuf must hand the commission over to the right set of people. But few politicians can be added to serve as government representatives in the commission.
More so, if the government wants to develop sports in the state, it is through the commission that it can do so> And that can only be achieved through the appointment of people of integrity, who are highly knowledgeable and highly experienced in sports administration, those who know sports and its politics in the country to run the commission.
For sure, I am aware of the governor’s awareness of the contributions of youth to his success at the last polls. Therefore, sports if developed can change the lives of many of them as sports is now a job provider which can make most of them earn a living. Many people who are into sports are now millionaires.
His Excellency must know that handing over the commission to the right people is the only way out and a guarantee to his political achievement because it will keep the teeming Kano state youth busy which will occupy most of them and give them good jobs.
To this end, I am also pleased to inform His Excellency that Kano state is blessed with the caliber of people needed to run the commission effectively and produce good results.
Places like tertiary institutions and our immediate society, if the government beam its searchlight well, will discover the people needed to run the commission which will also provide good results and records your administration will be proud of or satisfied with now and after. It will help and make your reelection bid easy in the next four years.
Since the job of the commission is enormous, we need people with genuine love and interest for sports development, people who are or were in the field for decades either serving or now retired, people who are academically sound to deliver.
In academia, I am sure we have capable hands. In Bayero University, Kano for instance, we have some Kano state’s indigenes from Physical and Health Education who have gone high in sports academically as most of them are now professors in sports and still in the sports arena of their university and the country as a whole.
They are always or periodically assigned or consulted by some bodies that are interested in sports development, national sporting associations or the federal ministry of sports in sports related matters. As I speak now, one of them is out of the country for World Universities Games (NUGA), while another one is currently heading the sports directorate of Bayero University, Kano.
They are sportsmen and are into sports from their youthful days to date and are always included or asked to commission football matches and head or included in sports committees at the national level.
In Saadatu Rimi University of Education and Federal College of Education Kano too, we have academicians serving as lecturers in the Physical and Health Education Department who can equally serve in the commission.
Outside the academic circle, we have someone who we called or referred to as the Dictionary and Encyclopedia of sports in the state. He is about to be conferred with his Phd in Sports Management from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The man in question has just retired from service as a Director of Sports under Kano State Sports Commission. He served as the chairman of the Forum of Directors of Sports in the country before he left office.
I am sure if consulted he will contribute to sports development in the state because that is what he reads and knows for a long period of time. He knows in and out of sports and its politics in the country.
Another individual who can fit to serve in the commission is a particular gentleman who the government have recently appointed as the secretary of Kano Pillars FC interim Management Committee.
This particular person was a sports officer in the Kano State Polytechnic before his retirement and he too is a PhD student of Sports Management in the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He too can be part of the team to run the sports commission because he too is an authority in the field.
To me, if His Excellency will identify these people, put them together and add few hands from his political side and handover sports commission to them, I am sure the state number one administrator will be the happiest man in a few months to come because they will tirelessly work and rejuvenate our fledgling sports to something else.
I assured the Governor that he will not regret his actions because he has put the right pegs in the right holes.
Allah yayi jagora.
