Three times Olympian Long Jumper, Yusuf Alli, on Monday blamed journalists for the dwindling fortune of athletics in Nigeria.
Speaking at the 2020 Ogun Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) week in Abeokuta, Alli said that journalists’ poor coverage and sometimes total neglect of athletics in favour of popular sports like football contributed to the downturn of athletics in Nigeria.
Alli, who is the General Manager, Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, also identified journalists’ allegiance to sport administrators instead of the sport itself, as among the bane of the sector.
The ex-Olympian further noted that the dwindling fortune of athletics in Nigeria was also as a result of poor funding of the game as opposed to football.
“Athletics will revert to what it was decades ago, a mere recreational exercise, without the funds generated from the broadcast media, social media and support of the print media as in other parts of the world where it recorded tremendous success,” he said.
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According to him, sport administrators have replaced sports development with sports promotion.
On way forward, he urged government at all levels to enact a policy that would make athletics compulsory for all primary and secondary school pupils.
“We need a policy that will ensure that potential athletes are spotted at a young age and in raw status, hence the return to basic principles that discovered and developed the best athletes that Nigeria produced in the past,” the ex-Olympian added.
In his welcome address, Ogun SWAN Chairman, Hakeem Akintunde, said that the foundation laying ceremony of the SWAN housing estate will hold on Tuesday as part of this year’s Ogun SWAN week.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the week has the theme, “The Downturn of Nigeria’s Athletics Fortune”.
