BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE/Gombe
Sports Stakeholders across all sectors have frowned at the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) officials over their non-challant attitude by not attending competitions organised and sponsored by individuals when invited.
During a media chat, Stakeholders noted that these national sports agencies and their heads hardly attend privately sponsored sports programmes when invited.
These views were expressed at the opening ceremony of the five-day Gombe Inter-secondary School Athletics Championships at Pantami Stadium on Tuesday.
Speaking further, the organiser and sponsor of the Championship Hon. Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe regretted that concerned individuals would spend their hard earned funds to organise competitions and send invitation letters to the NSC and AFN officials and yet they won’t attend.
Despite the fact that stakeholders decided to table the matter officially before NSC and AFN hierarchy, Gara Gombe maintained that those governing sports at the national level seem not to care about individual sponsorship of sports Competitions because they will not benefit.
Gombe said, “This attitude is not limited to those at the national level, and it is even worse at the state levels to the extent that they won’t even send representatives. How then would the private sector be encouraged to assist in sports sponsorship to help young talents grow in Nigeria?” Gombe queries.