You are not getting things right in sports, Gara Gombe tells Dare
By George Aluo
Former Gombe State FA chairman, Alhaji Shuaibu Gara Gombe has declared that the nation’s sports won’t attract investors and have a business face with the way Sports minister Sunday Dare is running the ministry.
Gara Gombe in an exclusive interview with newstap.com.ng insisted that the sports minister can not expect the private sector to invest in a sector when the sports ministry has not created the enabling environment.
He noted that the Organised private sector can not take Dare serious given the fact that the ministry has in the first place not allowed the various sports associations to breath.
“You saw how he (Dare) dabbled into the NFF matter after the Super Eagles not too impressive performance against Sierra Leone. Let’s go to the Athletics Federation, how can the private sector invest in a sector where the sports associations are not allowed to breath. As we speak, the sports ministry is at the Supreme Court with the AFN president simply because the association is seeking to assert her autonomy. If the associations are not autonomous how would they get sponsorship deals from the private sector. Is Dare expecting investors to put their money in the ministry? He is scaring away investors by not allowing the various sports associations to be truly autonomous. So, he is preaching one thing and doing things that would make the vision of making sports in the country have a business face a mission impossible.”
On the National Sports Festival, Gara Gombe said he sees it even suffering another round of postponement given the second wave of Covid 19. He also wondered why the sports ministry is desperate to hold the festival rather than concentrate on how the country would do well at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He also called for a rebranding of the sports festival insisting that the games can not attract sponsors the way it is presently run.
“At the Olympics level, it is the IOC and the different International Federations (IFs) that run the Olympics, but here at home, the national sports festival is one in which the sports ministry wants to run everything because of the money involved in doing so. I don’t see the festival holding even in February. You can see there is a second wave of Covid 19. And again, the ministry should concentrate on policy implementation and allow the various sports associations organise competitions.”
Gara Gombe dismissed the virtual meeting which was held last week to arrive at a new date for the festival as a scam asking…”how many of the directors of sports in the country have a laptop or phone to be part of a virtual meeting. The virtual meeting was nothing but a scam. That I can tell you. Some people sat down and decided on a new date and said it was after a virtual meeting.”
Gara Gombe said as a major stakeholder in Nigerian sports he wants to see sports move forward in the country declaring that the sports minister must do the right things if he wants to see the sector attract investors and have a business face.
