The Minister of Sports Development Sen John Owan-Enoh has said that the Ministry will not run football or any other sports on behalf of the federations, but instead, it has a responsibility to play oversight functions and ensure the best interest of the nation is represented in the operations and activities of federations.
Owan-Enoh made this known when he held a strategic meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) in his office in Abuja.
The sports minister said as part of his series of engagements with all sports federations in the nation, the followership, interest, popularity and excitement that football generates around the country, necessitates why careful and intentional actions must be taken for the growth of the game.
“The engagements with the leadership of all sports federations are part of my efforts to appraise the state of sports in the country,” he said. “This is to drive a common vision of development, resuscitate, rejuvenate and reinvigorate areas that are not in tandem with its mission.”
According to him, “We must be open to dissecting some of the burning issues in our football.We must look at global best practices obtainable in thriving nations.”
As frontier sports development minister, Owan-Enoh who said this was what the meeting was about, rhetorically asked, Where are we as a footballing nation?” What are our prospects?” and What are the plans?”
After he noted that sports sector is one where everyone is interested and wants to know what is going on, he added. “We should address topical and trending issues such as the 10-year football master plan implementation, membership of the executive board of the NFF, and the image of our league, amongst other issues.”
While calling on all hands to be on deck for development to be fostered. He also sue for all facets of NFF’s operations to thrive, when he said that “We must look at global best practices obtainable in thriving nations.”
“This is not limited to coaches and players’ education, referees’ development, league management, national teams’ success, governance statutes,” he concluded.