Create enabling environment for youth development, former AIG urges states

Ministries of Youth and Sports Development across the country have been charged to formulate deliberate policies that will keep youths engaged at all times.

This advice was given by the proprietor of Tower of Ivory Schools in Nigeria, retired Assistant Inspector of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, after conducting members of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Akwa Ibom State council, on tour of sporting facilities in his school located at Ediene Abak.

Ekpoudom said with such policies, youths would be guided on how to use their time in gainful engagement, thereby reducing their involvement in activities detrimental to the development of the society.

The retired AIG said his love for sports development in his schools steamed from the fact that it engages students’ minds and intellect, thereby, diverting their attention from social vices.

He added that one of the driving forces behind his zeal to build sports infrastructure is the realisation that sports could be used as bait to sharpen the intellectual capacities of students and pupils.

“I love my state and will always indulge in anything that will promote the development of my state. I ventured into schools because I intend to support the growth of education in my state.

“Today, we are building sports infrastructure as a deliberate attempt to leverage the love for sports to sharpen the intellectual capacities of our students and pupils,” he said.

Earlier, Akwa Ibom State SWAN chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Akpan, said the tour became necessary to allow his members opportunity to witness first-hand, the conscious efforts made by the school towards the development of sports.

“We have heard the story of the renaissance of sports infrastructure in your school and we are here to witness it first-hand. As sports writers, we are committed to the development and promotion of sports and it behooves on us to report such development to the general public wherever it may take place.”

The infrastructure visited at the school which now comprises nursery, academy, elementary and secondary schools with branches in Port Harcourt and other parts of the country, are a mini stadium of 500 seating capacity, complete with plastic seats and a standard natural-grassed football field with reinforced aluminum goalposts, modern basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, two badminton courts and a standard indoor sports hall.

Others are a long jump pitch, a fully furnished squash court and a standard swimming pool.