Monthly Archive for December, 2010

From Prof. Emmanuel Ojeme, in The Nation

Sports development is a key component of national development agenda in Nigeria. Hence, Government has enacted policy instruments to provide systematic guidelines to actualize its developmental goals or benchmarks in sports. The essence or significance of sports development is due to the capacity of sports to contribute to the overall good and happiness of the Nigerian society. It is thus as important as development desire in other sectors.  It is worrisome however, that whereas wholehearted efforts are made by Government and stakeholders of the Nigerian project to achieve development objectives in key sectors, when it comes to sports, developmental efforts seem to pale out. Education is the veritable means of achieving development objectives. The purpose of this paper is to briefly x-ray the goodness or fit of the educational system for sports development in Nigeria.

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By Kai Gordon, in The Huffington Post

There hasn’t been a time in professional sports where the roles of many athletes have been so diverse and often confusing regarding the image they are to portray to the public. This past Sunday’s games were a great example of those roles and the blurred definitions they’ve taken on as a result. Our sports figures are required to wear many hats but each hat is to be worn at staunchly different times. On the field, their role is often defined as gladiators or warriors with the heart of lions that take to the field eliminating everything in their path for 60 minutes. Before and after the games they are to conduct and carry themselves as business men with the elegance and poise of well mannered gentlemen groomed for success. And then there’s the element of side show act which comes into play sometimes before, during and after games as they attempt to entertain their fans and the world that has placed a magnifying glass over them. All of these roles have their place in the lives of those with their level of success, but what happens when these roles don’t appeal to the public and conflict with the will of the people at the wrong time?

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