Nigeria’s first Sports University debuts in Idumuje-Ugboko

At the conception stage of the Sports University of Nigeria, Idumuje-Ugboko, the proprietor, Prince Ned Nwoko, exuded confidence that the fruition of the project would provide a watershed in the sporting fortunes of some developing countries to beget competitive parity in global sports.

He, particularly, identified Nigeria as an epicentre for deploying the institution’s innovative approaches, embedded in the modus-operandi of the trail-blazing Sports University, as against the hitherto unproductive methods, from which Nigeria could boast only three good medals, from more than a dozen Olympics appearances.  

This remarkable educational institution’s uniqueness revolves around Nwoko’s mission statement, which, among others, anchors on “providing education in sports services: science, medicine, management, engineering, physical education, humanities and social science, as well as to develop top-level athletes through high-performance training.

“It will also collaborate with relevant authorities globally for exchange programmes to produce Olympic gold medalists, at international sports championships and world record breakers in many areas of sports.”

According to officials of the school, besides churning out quality athletes, astute sports managers and administrators, the Nigerian, African and global sports fellowship stands to harvest a plethora of benefits.     

The Sports University boasts a preponderance of standard global sporting facilities, including, but not limited, to a three-floor academic building, a top-scale art library, medical centres, an Olympic-size swimming pool, and standard pitches for football, hockey, and baseball.

Also, the varsity showcases a five-star hotel, administrative blocks, lecture halls, canteen, and junior staff quarters, among numerous state of the art facilities.

Establishing an Olympic training centre at the facility will indubitably enhance the standard of competitiveness in the comity of the global sporting fraternity.

dditionally, athletes who are alumni will no longer wallow in abject poverty, as skills acquired there, will place them in good stead in their post-competition era, as against the prevailing status of retired athletes’ complaints of neglect from their hitherto benefactors.