AFTER the triumph of Gen. Murtala Mohammed College, Yola, Adamawa State, at the maiden Youtfit U-17 Basketball Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Commissioner for Education, Gabriel Hamadama, who led the team to the tourney, says it is imperative for Nigerian schools to give sports priority to enable students showcase their talents.Having considered the feat the team achieved and surveyed the quality of sports facilities in most of the schools in South Africa,there is no doubt that Hamadama is thrilled by what he saw in Johannesburg.'In fact, I am highly impressed with the kind of facilities I saw in South African schools and this is a big challenge to us in Nigeria,' he said. 'For us in Nigeria, sports is left to government alone but with our coming to South Africa, I found out that all the schools that took part in the maiden Youthfit tourney are private schools.'This hardly happens in Nigeria because most of the private schools are most times aloof when it comes to participating in competitions. Even some of them do not have the required sports facilities.'So our coming to South Africa is an eye opener and it will help us to put pressure on government to provide sports facilities in public schools, which private schools should also take a cue from, for sports to grow in schools - the grassroots where our sports can be revived - before we start doing well in international competitions.'The commissioner noted that the feat achieved by GMMC since the past year has projected the state very well within and outside the country. He said: 'The performance of the state team at the Milo Secondary School Basketball Championship has been impressive and has projected the school, state and country very well.'The students' impressive performance started from the school, state and national levels and they are being appreciated by the state governor, who easily agreed to bankroll the trip to South Africa (for them) to take part in the Youtfit tournament.'Their good outing has proved that Adamawa has talents in sports and coming to South Africa again has opened up the state in terms of sports. I knew that when we left Nigeria so many people were not sure whether we could do well, but we have proved them wrong by winning the championship to bring honour to Nigeria.'So I believe they will now change their views on the state. My intention now is to put pressure on other schools in the state to emulate GMMC in almost all the facets of sports.
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