IBB joins call for development of other sports

FORMER Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, has called on government at all levels in the country to take deliberate steps towards investing in sports other than football to engage more youths and in the process reduce the high level of restiveness in the country.

  Speaking in Minna at the weekend during the closing ceremony of the first IBB Open Badminton Championship, General Babangida, decried the level of attention being giving to the game of football to the detriment of other sports in the country.

   The first edition of the annual IBB Open Badminton Championship was organized by the Niger State Badminton Association. 

  General Babangida, who was represented at the occasion by the former Minister of Interior, Alhaji Abubakar Tanko, said Nigeria has the potential to excel in other sports apart from football and make the country proud if given the necessary attention.

  The former head of state disclosed that the IBB Badminton Championship, which, he said, will go national from next edition, is part of his contributions to sports development in the country through making the game popular among the youths.

  Earlier, the Chairman of Niger State Badminton Association, Umar Kolo, expressed satisfaction that after years of neglect, Badminton is beginning to get attention, stressing that the game has come to stay in the state.

  Kolo disclosed that in order to encourage the development of the game in the state, the association has decided to re-introduce it in secondary schools across the state.

  Also speaking, the Provost, Niger State College of Education, which hosted the maiden edition of the championship, Professor Haruna Abdulraheed Farouk, said the college would do everything possible to encourage development of the game in the college.

  Professor Farouk, who is also an active badminton player, said it was because of his desire to encourage the development of the game that he ensured the completion of the ultra-modern indoor badminton arena in the college.

  Over 50 badminton players, both male and female from across the state, participated in the one-week championship, with trophies and cash prizes won by players in various categories.