Hassan Abdulsalam
Sport is the epitome of hard work and dedication. To get to the pinnacle of one’s sport, even the most naturally gifted athletes have to give it their all and train consistently so as to remain in limelight.
However, this is not the case in Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), where student-athletes that have passion for other sports aside football are not given enough opportunities to showcase their talents.
Findings revealed that sporting activities in MAPOLY are yet to get to where it should be, little or no sporting competitions are organized for students by the institution’s Directorate of Sports. Although departmental associations on Campus have been engaging students in football competitions for the past few years, but they have neglected other sports like badminton, Lawn tennis, basket ball etc.
Recently, the Sports Director of Association of Mass Communication Students (AMACOS) Comrade Azeez Akorede (K-solo), decried the poor state of sports in the school, faulting the abandoned sporting facilities by the concerned quarters.
"The school sports center has been abandon and unused by sports facilitator of the school. Instead of using the sports center for what is meant for – sporting activities, the arena was used for lectures years back. Maybe this time, we can utilize the facilities as students.
"Some challenges we are facing is that we don’t have enough modern training equipment and there’s no time for us to train"
As sports especially football is loved passionately by students, there is no gainsaying that their engagement in sports while on campus would drastically reduce any form of immoral acts students may want to indulge in.
Grassroots Sports was the source of success for some young stars like Kelechi Ihenacho, Asisat Oshoala, Neymar jnr, Lewis Brown, Serena Williams and so on and it also added fame to their image.
No doubt, tertiary institutions like MAPOLY have numerous talents that are subdued but there is need for talents to be discovered in grassroots. The management, as well as governments at various levels should show keen interest in bringing these talented students to limelight for national glory. They must take a leaf from Channels TV’s ‘Channels Kids Cup’ for primary school pupils and GT Bank’s annual principal cup for secondary school students in partnership with state governments in Nigeria to organize. Tournaments like these would definitely produce future stars
As Ogun state government plans to organize Gateway Tertiary Institution Games (GATIG) for all tertiary institutions in the state. MAPOLY show interest and see it as an opportunity to right the wrongs. There has to be proper planning and adequate preparation for interested students as they would be willing to showcase their talents to the outside world.
I wish the private sector, Ogun state government and sport lovers in the state could extend their hands of favour in order to revive sports in MAPOLY and bring them back to life.
Meanwhile, other games should also be considered. Facilities of these other games should be properly maintained by the polytechnic.
