Dalung advises Nigeria Shooting Federation to re-position game

The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung on Wednesday advised the Nigeria Shooting Federation to re-position the game into a medal-winning sport for the country.

Dalung gave the advice in Abuja when board members of the federation, led by its President, Lonsdale Adeoye visited him in Abuja.

He said that sports remained one of the major tools that would unite the country.

Dalung congratulated the president on his victory and advised him to focus on grassroots sports development.

“Sports federations are the integral parts of development in Nigeria and in the world over and things must be done rightly at this level.

“I have on many occasions emphasised the significance of sports not just in national development but also in creating wealth,” he said.

According to the minister, sports contribute to the nation’s foreign reserve, contribute to its healthy development and serve as a tool for national integration.

“There is none comparable to sports in all existing human activities, so we must invest in sports.”

He assured that the ministry would do its best to support any federation with grassroots development programme to succeed.

According to him, a society that does not mentor the future is a society that is mentoring doom.

“Therefore, if sports development in Nigeria revolves around recycling old professional athletes, this means that we will not get anything good from sports.

“Grassroots sports developments have not been given attention for decade, so it is difficult to get young athletes to replace aging ones.

“I will be much happier when I will see young shooters being trained, mentored and nurtured to be professional athletes.’’

The minister also promised to table the federation’s request to the National Council of Sports for inclusion in the next National Sports Festival and Common wealth games.

“I will be much happier to see young shooters emerge as gold medalists, I want to assure you that shooting will be at the National Sports Federation, even if as a trial sport.”

Earlier, Adeoye solicited the assistance of the minister for possible inclusion of shooting in the subsequent editions of the National Sports Festival and Commonwealth Games.

He said that with the current performance of Nigerian shooters and the standard of the Commonwealth Games, Nigeria would make a mark in the game.