Legendary Nigerian footballer, Dr Segun Odegbami has called on West African sub-region to bid for the hosting right of the World Cup to enable the region harness the abundant potentials and fortunes in the tournament.
Odegbami made the call on Wednesday while presenting the 15th distinguished public lecture series of the Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State with the theme: “Sports has the power to change the world. How true?”
The former International said all countries that have hosted the World Cup and other international sporting tournaments recorded huge impact that improved on their economy and development.
He noted that the time has come for West African countries to host the first world cup to be held on the African continent.
Speaking further, the Mathematical Odegbami as he was fondly called during his days on the pitch proposed “using sports to catalyse, facilitate, accelerate and enforce the biggest and fastest infrastructural development programme for the West African sub-region, by West Africa bidding to host the First World Cup to be held in the African continent.
“The idea was simple. More countries in the project would mean more collaboration, reduction in the burden of cost for a single country, and wider spread of the benefits to more countries.
“The eight years of preparing to receive and host a visiting global community of at least one million sports fans over a one month period would change that region completely, forever.
“It was too good to be true. Yet, sports has the power to achieve that and more. The evidence is all over other parts of the world, for instance in China, in the UAE, in Europe and America. In these places, sports continues to expand its deployment for infrastructural, social and economic development,” the football legend said.
Odegbami who was among the team that won the African Nation’s cup laurel for Nigeria in 1980, charged the Federal University Lokoja and other tertiary institutions in the country to prioritise sports to discover talents that would advance the cause of the institution in sporting activities.
“Sports has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the youths in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where there was once despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.” he stated.
Earlier in his speech, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Olayemi Akinwumi said as academics, they recognise the transformative power of sports beyond the field of play, noting that it inspire, build discipline, and cultivate leadership values that are crucial for individual and national development.
“We have seen how global sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics bring nations together in the spirit of competition and friendship. Locally, football, athletics, and basketball have played vital roles in fostering national pride and identity.
“As a University and as a nation, we must harness the power of sports to promote unity, development, and social change. We believe that sports has the potential to foster the much-needed unity within our university, across Kogi State, and throughout Nigeria,” the VC stated.
