THE state of school sports in Nigeria was the centre of discussion at the Greensprings School's sports forum held at the Union Bank Sports Club in Surulere at the weekend.Practitioners ranging from sports administrators to former athletes and coaches agreed that the neglect of school sports by successive governments in the country has adversely affected Nigerian sports without any bias to people's opium- football.Kick starting the discussion was the Lagos Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Oshodi, who lauded the management of Greensprings School for putting the event together and urging others to take a cue from this.Despite the hue and cry over the dwindling fortunes of sports and the call for a quick return to the grassroots, Oshodi said there has not been concrete efforts to back up this call, adding: 'It is high time people made conscious efforts to revive sports generally in Nigeria.'For sports to thrive again in the country, the commissioner said that schools have significant roles to play, while calling on both public and private schools to give sports priority in their domain.In his paper titled, 'School Sports Development in Nigeria and the United Kingdom: The Successes and Challenges,' head of Greensprings' Lekki Campus, Harry McFaul, emphasised the importance of physical exercise, noting that 70 per cent of children were now obese because of high intake of sugar.McFaul admonished parents to encourage and support their wards to take part in sports, which he believes would help them to attain good healthy. Erstwhile national table tennis star and Director of Sports, the University of Lagos, Cecilia Arinye, who spoke on Gender Issues in School Sports Development in Nigeria, lamented the little attention being paid to female athletes.According to her, this most times discourages parents from allowing their female children to feature in sports. She called for change of attitude towards encouraging female students to take to sports like her.In his paper, Segun Odegbami once again gave an overview on the state of school sports, while affirming that for schools sports to thrive, parents have a major role to play. Odegbami, who was represented by Kunle Raji, preached the need for athletes to balance sports with education.The event also witnessed the official launch of the weekend sports academy organised by the school. The academy has events like football, basketball, table tennis, tennis, swimming and athletics.
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