ABUJA – Mrs Bhakira Oriyomi, the Proprietress, Voyage International School Abuja, has called on the government to build more recreational and sporting facilities in the FCT to help the city and country develop its athletes.
Oriyomi made the call in Abuja on Saturday at the school’s maiden Inter House Sports competition which took place at the training pitch of the National Stadium, Abuja.
She said that for sports to develop, government needed to create the enabling environment for athletes’ potential to be nurtured.
“Government should create spaces all over Abuja, where people can go to and have sporting activities; not spaces for beer parlours.
“They should also encourage people to create time even at work or at weekends to exercise together, it’s very important,’’ she said.
Oriyomi pointed out that the essence of the inter-house sports competition was to harness the potential in the kids and explore ways of developing them to stardom.
She said that some of the pupils desired to be professional athletes and the school had no option than to assist them realise their dream through sporting activities.
“It’s also a way to develop the potential in our kids; you might not know, some of them could pick career in some of these activities that were displayed today.
“For us, the inter-house competition is more of a game than an annual school curricular activity to be celebrated annually.
“For every Nigerian child, I advise that they go out and get fit while they study hard; they should equally ensure that the school curricular activity are given the desired attention.
“So that in the end, they will not only excel in their academics, but also be relevant in the society,’’ she added.
Nnanna Ude, the Games Master of the school said they were out to develop the whole child, stressing that to achieve this; the child must be developed academically, socially, morally, spiritually and physically.
To develop the child physically, Ude noted, physical exercises and sports must be involved.
“Some of the children at the end of the day may end up as professional athletes or footballers.
“You may discover that some of them have interest in these sporting activities more than they have in their academics.
“So, we try as much as we can to make them express themselves in any way they feel comfortable; that is why we are doing this,’’ Ude said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abubakar House, represented with purple colour emerged the overall winners of the competition, while Umar House, popularly known as the “Orange House’’ finished as runners up.
The third prize award went to the Usman House, marked “Red House.’’
Prizes were won in events such as 100 metres race, filling the basket, filling the bottle, sack race, egg and spoon race, relay, staff and parents race.
Race was also organised for the parents with Musa Abubakar winning the men’s category, while Adelodu Zuliat won the women’s event. (NAN)