Minna- The Vice President, Africa Squash Federation, Alhaji Adamu Erena, on Saturday called on corporate bodies in Nigeria and wealthy Nigerians to collaborate with the three tiers governments in the development of sports.
Erena, in charge of North and Central Africa and also President, Nigeria Squash Federation made the call in Minna when he inaugurated a two-day North-Central zonal Secondary Schools Squash Competition.
He said that the measure would create jobs for the many unemployed youths in the country.
“I want to use this opportunity to call on corporate organisations and well-to-do Nigerians to support Federal, state and local governments, through sports development to create jobs for our teeming jobless youths.
“The idea is also to create wealth for them and keep them out of the streets where they can be easily influenced by bad companies,’’ he said.
He said that the appeal became necessary because the economic recession in the country had made it impossible for government to meet many needs of citizens.
According to him, the current economic challenges confronting the nation made it imperative for stakeholders in sports to contribute to efforts aimed at curtailing negative influence on the youths.
Erena said that the federation under his leadership had recorded some achievements through sponsorship of championships in the past few years.
He said that the secondary schools competition was part of his contributions to sports development.
Also, Faidat Soliu, a 17-year-0ld student of Government Day Secondary School, Kwara, said that the competition would help her to learn new technique in the game.
Soliu commended the organisers of the competition and the Minna Squash Club for maintaining a standard court for the competition.
Similarly, Precious Fada, 18, and student of Hill Top Model School, Minna, said that the competition was an avenue for capacity building among the young squash players.
Fada was optimistic of winning the competition, saying that he had won similar championship few years ago in Kaduna.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the competition is a collaborative effort between Erena, the North-Central zonal office of the Federal Ministry of Sports in Jos and Niger Ministry of Sports.
The championship is aimed at discovering talents in the zone.
NAN also reports that the competition featured players from the seven states of the federation: Kwara, Benue, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory.