One of Nigeria’s leading traditional rulers and paramount chief of Karshi, Alhaji Ismaila Mohammed, has urged governments both at the federal and state level to prioritise sports development, saying it can be used to develop infrastructure and revive the economy.
The Emir of Karshi gave the advice on Wednesday while receiving the FOSLA Academy football team that earned Nigeria two slots to the 2024 World School Football Championship (WSFC) slated for China following their superlative and unprecedented performance at the just concluded this year’s edition of the championship in Rabat, Morocco.
The monarch described sports as a powerful medium, saying in the midst of bad news about Nigeria, it is only sports that has continued to project Nigeria positively to the rest of the world.
“I’m using this opportunity to call on the governments to give sports a priority because if you see what Nigerian female football team, Super Falcons, are doing now at the Women World Cup where they have progressed to the second round, you can see the excitement all over the world about Nigeria’s achievement.
“So, in the midst of bad news about Nigeria, it is only sports that project Nigerian image positively to the world. Therefore, the government should give sports the utmost attention that it deserves, not only because not it unites us but because you can use sports to develop the country’s infrastructure and revive the economy.
“Many countries of the world if they have problem in infrastructure or there is a decline in their economy they invest in sports or host global sporting events and through that they will be able to rebuild their infrastructure and resuscitate their economy because the entire world will converge in the country and their tourism will be uplifted,” he said.
While congratulating the FOSLA Academy Football team for their feat in doing Nigeria making proud in faraway Morocco, appealed to the proprietor of the Academy and former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi not to get frustrated, saying everything that is good would not come easy.
“I salute your resilience in putting this team together to go to Morocco and represent. It was a tough effort but we give glory to God because at the end we were able to achieve this feat. I want to commend you and also appeal to you not to get frustrated because everything that is good would not come to you easily.
The proprietor of the Academy Alhaji Sani Lulu who was full of joy for the feat recorded by the team, his pet project as a work in progress, saying that if fully developed, the Academy will compete favourably with the best in the world and lift Nigeria up.
