BY EMMA JEMEGAH
A renown sports journalist, Effiong Nyong, has urged the chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shah Dikko to consider establishing regional offices across the six geopolitical zones for effective administration.
The veteran broadcaster, in a chat with SportingSun, in Lagos, said considering the deteriorating facilities scattered across the country, setting up offices in the six zones would assist the commission chairman in his task of repositioning sports in the country.
According to him, each zone has comparative advantage in certain sport, stressing that by have offices manned by experienced administrators would help in nurturing the athletes in their areas of specialisation as well as easy monitoring of their development.
Nyong posited that the concentration of all the sporting federations in Abuja is unhelpful, adding that with the zonal offices, the National Sports Commission would easily be able to monitor and administer the various sports.
“For instance, Lagos home to boxing, table tennis, Tennis and having the federations in Lagos will not only safe cost but ensure close monitoring of the athletes. In South South, wrestling and athletics are the major sports. Each zone has it core sports advantage and it will be better having directors in these areas who will report to the chairman for sustainability,” he advocated.
The former sports anchorman on Silverbird Television, Lagos equally said the various national sports assets would be better maintained with zonal chapters of the NSC instead of concesssing them to the various states governments like the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan as well as the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.