5th February, 2021
The Speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, on Friday, said the potentials embedded in sports have been highly underestimated in Nigeria.
Speaker Obasa said this during a public hearing on a bill that seeks to amend the Lagos State Sports Commission Law, 2017.
Represented by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, Obasa said it was lamentable that some people see sports in its aesthetic outlook whereas it has a deep relationship with the security and socio-economic well-being of the nation.
The Speaker said sports has “saved the world of many criminals and the criminality that would have been perpetrated by them. Likewise, sports have transformed the lives of many people living in our neighbourhoods.
“Sports have made heroes and mentors in our communities and these people have become the ambassadors of good courses in our lives.”
Obasa promised that the Assembly would continue to pursue the good of the youth in the state by ensuring that the state ends up having a world-class enviable sports administration.
He described the bill as the Assembly’s ‘hunger’ to better the current achievements recorded by the state in the area of sports.
He noted that the objectives of the law being amended is being broadened in line with global trends in sports industries and its administration to boost the development of the consciousness of young people in the state.
Speaking earlier, the acting chairman of the House Committee on Youths, Sports and Social Development, Hon Owolabi Ibrahim Ajani, said the bill is intended to provide more opportunities and a conducive environment that would encourage social belonging and further development of the state.
“It also intends to ensure that all machinery, policies and strategies are put in place to take sporting activities to the highest level within the local communities by nurturing and developing talents in the state,” he said.
Some of the participants at the public hearing presented memoranda and made useful suggestions which the Deputy Speaker promised that the House would consider.