Nigeria’s sports minister, Sunday Akinlabi Dare has taken his promises for revitalized efforts at reviving youth sports in the country to another level by successfully reaching an agreement with a private promotions venture over oraganisation of football competitions for primary and secondary schools across the country.
Megasportsarena.com can report that details of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Dare and the company showed that the forthcoming competitions, Headmaster’s Cup for primary schools and Principal’s Cup for those at the secondary level, will be staged on the national level.
The minister’s media officer, John Joshua-Akanji explained that the agreement is line with the new focus of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to ensure adequate attention is given to enhanced grassroots sports development and discovery of budding talents across the nation, especially in football, which is largely regarded as the king of sports.
Having also taken recent giant strides in supporting boxing, athletics, wrestling and swimming from the grassroots, Dare has added to his feather in the agreement he signed with Hideaplus Consultancy Limited, who have been empowered to organize the National Principals Cup and Headmasters Cup competitions across the federation.
While throwing more light on the agreement, the chief responsibility officer of Hideaplus, Tony Oritse Pemu thanked the minister for his visionary approach to sports in Nigeria and promised that his company will give their best to reenact the country’s old tradition of schools football.
Pemu added that the National Principals Cup would cut across secondary schools in the country while the Head Master’s Cup will involve primary schools, with about 10,000 first and second level academic institutions expected to participate in the inaugural editions of both events.
On his part, the minister added that both competitions will bring back exciting experiences youth football lovers used to enjoy in the Principal’s Cup, which produced several talented footballers of years gone by, who went on to become esteemed national team stars and internationally renowned achievers in the round leather game.
While promising to include as many sports as possible in his unfolding grassroots sports development initiative, Dare expressed delight that one of the ministry’s visions had become a reality, and assured that the event will a huge success all across the federation.
Dare concluded: “Today we give strength to our commitment to revive the Principals Cup that would serve as trailblazer to bring back some of the lost glory of not just football, but sports development generally. You would recall the nostalgia that the Principals Cup used to evoke. We had seen some of our best footballers and stars come through the Principals Cup, but it suddenly died off. I promise that this won’t be just about football, but other sports would be included.”
