Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has stated that it’s time the State changed the narrative and imbibe Grassroot sports.
He said this at the flag-off of the Abia State School Sports Festival 2020 and 1st Edition of Dr Okezie Ikpeazu Table Tennis School Championship Cup.
Speaking while flagging-off the event organized by the State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and tagged “Catching Them Young” at Osusu Amaukwa Model Primary School, Obingwa Local Government Area, the Governor congratulated the Ministry of Youth & Sports Development for collaborating with other like Ministries in organising the festival. He stated that all participants at the festival are champions regardless of whether they lose or win and assured that his administration will hold the event regularly to ensure that Abia School children maintain healthy bodies in their award-winning healthy minds.
Governor Ikpeazu said that Abia State was known for various sporting activities before shifting and concentrating on soccer. He disclosed that the essence of the festival was to re-write the narratives, return the glory of yesteryears and ensure that pupils and students begin from the cradle to learn different sporting activities.
The State chief executive who revealed that his administration spent 1.5 million Euros in re-constructing the turf of Enyimba international stadium said the State has invested much in sports and highlighted the importance of sports to everyone including the young ones.
The representative of the Minister of Sports, Dr Ademola Are, described the event by the Abia State government as laudable and stressed the need for more awareness about sports development.
He said the federal government attaches great importance to grassroots sports, stressing that the importance of sports in the general development of the nation cannot be over-emphasized and expressed his regrets at the decline of sporting activities in the country. The Federal Minister went ahead to appreciate the developmental projects of Abia State under the leadership of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Youth & Sports Development, Chief Emeka Ikwuagwu, said that the festival was instituted in line with the Governor’s mandate of reviving sporting activities in the state. He disclosed that the festival which has 800 public and private schools in the State as participants and categorized into males and females, would expose pupils and students to 18 different sporting activities.
Chief Ikwuagwu said the event which is the biggest sporting activity ever done in the State could be described as a mega inter-house sport. He revealed that the talents of various sporting fields would be fished out from the event for further development and informed that the event would be an annual one.
The event which saw the Governor playing table tennis also featured march past of pupils and students from various schools as well as the unveiling of the competition logo by the Governor.
