The newly appointed Chairman of the House of Representatives Sports Committee, Honourable Ekene Adams Abubakar has hit the ground running as he is set to meet with critical sports stakeholders in Abuja on Thursday, August 3rd to chart a new course for Sports.
According to the accomplished administrator and former General Manager of Remo Stars, the meeting which will take in Abuja will be attended by presidents of all the 36 sports federations, the Nigerian Olympics Committee, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Premier League Club owners, Nationwide League and other league boards, Referees, ex internationals, players union, the National Institute for Sports, former sports minister, coaches, lottery board, EFCC, ICPC and corporate organisations.
Also expected at the event are the Nigerian Olympians Association, the Nigerian Police Force, medical practitioners, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Ministries of Youth and Sports, Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Nigerian School’s Sports Federation, the Sports Writers, veterans amongst others.
He assured that the meeting would set the tone for a robust, renewed policy direction for Nigerian sports as well as to seek areas of mutual benefits in the best interest of Nigerian Sports.
Honourable Abubakar assured that the era of bickering, bitterness and working at cross-purposes was over. “We should all come together to forge a new direction for our sports. We have to work together with the executive arm of government and all stakeholders to actualize our collective dreams. Sports can only thrive when there is peace and harmony among the stakeholders. Sports unites us as a people, so we should deploy it to foster peace, unity, progress and development of our great country. Having played the game to the highest level, administered it as a club owner, I feel the pains of all stakeholders. Let’s put the past bad experiences behind us and focus on a bright future. We are not doing the youths any good if we don’t put the interest of the country first. We need to rally round each other to make things work well for everyone”