Tag: Sports festival

  • Kaduna govt pledges special scholarship packages for talented athletes at state sports festival

    Kaduna govt pledges special scholarship packages for talented athletes at state sports festival

    The Kaduna State Government will provide talented athletes identified at the ongoing sixth edition of the State Sports Festival with special scholarship packages, an official disclosed on Monday in Kaduna.

    The state’s Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe, made the disclosure while declaring open the festival at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.

    She said the state government would, in view of the importance attached to sports, provide incentives such as scholarship packages to students who distinguished themselves in events.

    “To provide these incentives, the state has instituted special scholarship packages for those who excel in sports,” Balarabe declared.

    She said the state government was aware of the importance of sports in promoting the socio-economic development of states.

    The deputy governor pointed out that this knowledge led to the need to give the state’s Sports Development Ministry the necessary support to ensure the festival was held annually.

    She said the state government was hopeful the festival would enable young athletes in the state to find national and international space to exhibit their talents.

    “Sports generally enhances students’ academic performance. Youths involved in sports are also most likely not to engage in drugs and they do not drop out of school.

    “Sports unites people, and it is as such a driving force that makes us to begin to provide sports facilities in all public schools,’’ Balarabe said.

    She charged the chairmen of all local governments in the state to support events at the grass roots to ensure an all-round development.

    “Also, let me call on corporate organisations and public-spirited individuals to come and partner with us in ensuring this sports festival is sustained annually,” she said.

    Over 2O,000 athletes and officials from the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state are featuring in the one-week event.(NAN)

  • Ex-Nigerian female athletes plan mini sports festival for youths

    Ex-Nigerian female athletes plan mini sports festival for youths

    The Association of Former Female Athletes of Nigeria (AFFAN) says it will organise a mini sports festival for boys and girls in primary and secondary schools in the country to help curb crimes in the society.

    Mrs Esther Aluko, President of AFFAN said this in Abuja during a press briefing to sensitise the public on the activities of the group particularly the effort to arrest youth restiveness and societal menace.

    Aluko said the association with the primary aim of discovering, educating, empowering and mentoring Nigerian girls through sports was concerned about inculcating leadership values into the young ones through sports and education.

    “The AFFAN mini sports festival will be in three categories, the primary, the junior and senior secondary school.

    “The sports festival will help arrest youth restiveness and help produce future leaders that through participation in sports must have learnt core leadership values at tender ages such as team spirit, fair play, tolerance, commitment, dedication, respect and discipline necessary for nation building.

    “At the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, the UN member States at the highest level recognised that sports is also an important enabler of sustainable development.

    “It also valued the growing contribution of sports to the realisation of development and peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect as well as the contributions it makes to the empowerment of women and the young people.

    “Sports is powerful tool to achieve the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the vast positive power and passion of sports will continue to bring people together, promoting a more inclusive and peaceful world through its universal values and principles,” Aluko said.

    According to her, sports has played an important role in all societies and acted as a strong communication platform that can be used to promote the culture of peace and as such must be used to promote unity from schools.

    She explained that a comprehensive programme for the mini sports festival would be unveiled in Abuja on Feb. 8, when the association would be formally inaugurated. (NAN)