Abuja Schools’ Olympic

Sports in Nigeria have been on a downtrend recently. This is because we do not pay adequate attention to grassroots sport development in Nigeria especially in our schools.

The fact that team Nigeria came back with just one bronze medal in the just concluded Olympic games can be described as disappointing to say the least. This also points to the fact that apart from football which is the major sport in Nigeria, other sports have somewhat been neglected which has led to the disappointing and below par performances of team Nigeria.

Indeed, you might want to argue that Nigeria still have some athletes such as Segun Toriola, Haruna Quadri and Blessing Okagbare, but can they be at the top level competing to win honors in some 5-10 years time? Well, we really need to think about the posterity and sustainability of our sporting projects because of it importance to any nation.

The adage of 'catch them young' can never be over emphasized. We need to prepare a generation of young and hungry athletes who can compete at the highest level in the near future and bring Nigeria back to her glory days. To achieve this all hands must be on deck to ensure that this initiative comes to fruition.

In view of the above, we are organizing the ABUJA SCHOOLS’ OLYMPIC. This championship will involve games such as basketball, lawn tennis, table tennis, gymnastics, scrabble, chess, swimming, and the list goes on.

This championship aims at bringing to the fore, young Nigerians who have the potentials to become world-class athletes as a grand talent discovery platform. It also aims at harnessing the hidden potentials, which are yet to be discovered.

This will also help to reduce over dependence on government jobs and encourage the young ones to look inwards.

The Nigerian sports sector seems to be tarnished already; this is a fall out on a country that is dubbed as the “The Giant of Africa”. However, the ABUJA SCHOOL’S OLYMPIC will give favourable exposure to young Nigerian athletes as well as rejuvenate the sports sector.