GRASSROOT SPORT AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Grassroots sport is the factory for future world champions. The importance of grassroots sport to national development cannot be over-emphasized. Countries that have won important world tournaments like the Olympics, the FIFA world cup and so on, have made huge investments in grassroots sports. It is said that most sports people who are champions in different endeavors were caught young when they were tender and groomed to become great in their chosen fields. A look at countries with well developed system of grassroots sports will show that the better the grassroots system, the more laurels they win in regional and international competitions. A case study of the United States of America, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, China and England will show that their grassroots sport systems is blossoming. This explains why these nations have dominated - and are still dominating - major sporting competitions internationally. Nigeria has not fared well in regional and international competitions. Apart from a few medals in the Olympics and some other triumphs in the African Cup of Nations, the country’s outings in international competitions are generally dismal. This is due to the meager premium Nigerian sports administrators pay on the grassroots sports scheme. They fail to understand that grassroots sport is the starting point of future champions.

Grassroots sport in Nigeria is in a state of coma and need to be revitalized.  Sport in Nigeria is neglected at the lower ebb. In general, grassroots sports are not encouraged especially in primary and secondary schools. A visit to a typical primary or secondary school would expose the flippant attitude we place on grassroots sports. Most schools have no sporting facilities, only a handful has got football pitches, which are not even up to standard. Other sports like athletics, cricket, swimming, basketball and so on are unpopular among the youths in Nigeria. There is also a dearth of sporting academies in Nigeria. Apart from few football academies that are not up to standard, there are no academies in other sports.

The benefits of getting sportsmen and women when they are tender cannot be over-emphasized. It is no news that most times, Nigeria would have to grapple with the shame of fielding overage players in youth competitions. Just recently, in the 2013 African Under-17 Football tournament, it was discovered that some of the players who we paraded were over-aged, thanks to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Such mendacious acts happen because there are no good programmes set aside to groom future champions from the scratch. Age cheat is common in our nation because most of our sports people begin to pick interest in sports after they must have left secondary school. Most of them take to sports after they have explored other option without much success; this is appalling.

The government, through the National Sports Commission, should begin to invest in grassroots sport. Sporting facilities and equipments should be provided to every school, be it primary, secondary or tertiary. More so, sporting facilities should be provided in neighborhoods so as to enable young people have access to them. Government should also overhaul our sport policy, and propound a better one that would give precedence to grassroots sport. I am of the opinion that if the government give priority to grassroots sport, our sport would be better for it.