George Aluo 

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Nwike has declared that he is on a mission to lay a solid foundation for sports in the state.

Nwike who had after a one day retreat organised for media men in Port Harcourt last week played host to some Sports Editors in his Government House residence said one thing he would not do is to pay lip service to sports development in the state.

He said sports is one sector government needs to invest heavily in, since it is an area that engages the youths. He pointed out that one immediate benefit of sports is that government can use it to fight youth restiveness.

“As a governor, I m not paying lip service to sports development. And I don’t believe in half measures. Whatever I want to do, I do it very well. My vision is to lay a solid foundation for sports in Rivers State. This is why we are putting facilities in place and doing all we can to take sports in this state to the next level.

“Talking about football, when I assumed office as governor, I inherited three football clubs, Sharks, Dolphins and Rivers Angels. And players of the three clubs were being owed heavily. What they were owed ran into millions of naira. What I did was to clear the debts. I paid whatever was being owed them from bonuses to sign on fees and salaries. I spent well over N1bn to settle whatever is being owed the players.

The next step I took was to merge Sharks and Dolphins to become Rivers United. They played in the continent last year, but unfortunately they didn’t go far. But we gave the team all the needed support including sending them on a playing tour of Madrid in Italy. Today, in a bid to catch them young and ensure to run football the way it should be run professionally, we are establishing a soccer academy in partnership with Real Madrid. The academy would be up and running in another six months. We are putting World class facilities in place at the academy. I have also not neglected other athletes who are competing for Rivers State. In fact, in my first year in office, I spent over N800m to pay athletes who did the state proud during the 2012 national sports festival in Lagos.

As I speak to you, we are going to organize the Rivers State sports festival in Port Harcourt this year. We won’t allow the Rivers sports festival to become the national sports festival that has not been held in the last six years since after Eko 2012. This year alone, we have earmarked over N2.5 Bn in our budget for sports development. So, you can see we are matching words with action. 

On the African Wrestling Championship, that is already a done deal. Anybody that visits the Diette Spiff Sports Centre would know that we are ready to host Africa. That place was in bad shape, but today it is wearing a new look ahead of the African Wrestling Championship. As I said earlier, we don’t do things in half measures in Rivers and so we are going to show the world how serious we are in sports and hospitality.

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The venue is undergoing very serious renovation and other arrangements are being handled professionally by the team we have in charge of the event. I am very sure that the participants will be happy to come to Port Harcourt for the competition.

As we speak, Rivers also boasts of three functional Olympic size swimming pools. I m also paying very close attention to Swimming because I know it is a sports where we have comparative advantage.

On the whole, my vision is to make Rivers the new Mecca of Nigerian sports, a Rivers where we can host any international sporting meet ranging from football to every other sports.”

Wike had after his comments thrown the floor open for other stakeholders to bare their minds on sports in Rivers State.

First to react was Daniel Igali, President of Nigeria wrestling federation. Igali was full of praise for Nwike for identifying with wrestling under other state governors that do little or nothing for the so called lesser sports.

“In our country, what most governors do is to support football and that’s all. Here in Rivers, we have a governor who is investing and supporting other sports. I want to say a big thank you to Wike for identifying with wrestling and other sports. He has even gone ahead to shoulder what ordinarily should be the responsibility of federal government…to fund our build up for the African wrestling championship. Nwike is funding our camping in Yenagoa, Port Harcourt and Akure. His Excellency  is not only funding the LOC to stage a great show, he is also footing the bill of the athletes on a daily basis in their camps. If we have more of this kind of support, wrestling will be better for it,” Igali said.

National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Hono Sirawo on his part stated that Gov Wike is simply a governor with a difference. 

“He is Mr Projects and we are seeing that not only in the roads and bridges he is constructing, but in the sports sector,” Sirawo said.

The SWAN boss said he is happy the Diette Spiff Sports Centre is wearing a new look ahead of the African wrestling meet billed to run from February 5-12.