Abuja, Jan. 22, 2025 – Sports Stakeholders across all sectors have frowned at the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) officials’ non challant attitude towards competitions organised and sponsored by individuals.
These views were expressed at the opening ceremony of the 5-day Gombe Inter-secondary School Athletics Championships at Pantami Stadium on Tuesday.
During a chat with newsmen on Tuesday, stakeholders noted that these national sports agencies and their heads hardly attend privately sponsored sports programme when invited.
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 invite the NSC and AFN officials, but they would not attend.
Aside stakeholders saying that they will officially table the matter before NSC and AFN hierarchy, Hon.Gara Gombe maintained that those governing sports at the national level seem not to care about individual sponsorship of sports competitions as they usually are no financial benefits gained from attending such events.
“This attitude is not limited to those at the national level, it is even worse at the state level.
“They won’t even send a representative.
“How then would the private sector be encouraged to assist in sports sponsorship to help young talents grow in Nigeria?,”Gombe queried.
