Hon Daniel Igali, m, flanked by Moses Etu, Chairman media committee, and Mr Isaiah, SWAN national president.
Bayelsa State Commissioner of Sports Hon. Daniel Igali said wrestling has been winning medals under his watch as National president of Wrestling Federation of Nigeria.
Hon Igali made the assertion against the backdrop that wrestling as a sports has not been impressive among competitive sports in Nigeria, local and internationally, while addressing journalist in Asaba at ongoing National Youth Games (NYG) being hosted by Delta state.
According to the Bayelsa born wrestler, at the Commonwealth games, Olympics and other african games, wrestling remains the only sports that has won medals for Nigeria, “no other sports has done that much”
While commending journalist for their interest in reporting sports in this magnitude, he advised that emphasis should be on development of grassroot sports, talent hunt rather wins or record breaking in some of the events, participation is key. “States are well advised to sponsor their athletes to participate in grassroots sports beyond medals haul.
The Bayelsa State Sports Commissioner, Hon. Daniel igali also called on the Nigerian government to accord sports Icons an ambassadorial roles with diplomatic passports for good reasons
Igali insisted that by so doing, sportsmen and women in Nigeria would begin to have respect to function in building the image of the country at home and abroad
According to him, other countries have such portfolios for their sports men and women owing to their excellent performance in their sports endeavours.
Igali reiterated the need to have sports huge budget that would lift sports from the grassroots to higher performance level.
“it takes huge amount of money to keep miscreants, street urchins and drug addicts behind bars, and queried why should government at all levels shy alway from having a reasonable budget for sports in Nigeria.
Other countries, he stressed, use sports to mitigate Youth unrest, social vices and illiteracy in the society.
“I want to humbly request that government should think of empowering Youth of Nigeria through sports with huge budgetery allocation”
The commissioner who won Canada:s first gold medal in Wrestling as an athlete reiterated that, since his appointment in 2013 as sports boss in Bayelsa, it has been success and victories not only in wrestling but in other sports.
“I arrived Asaba with 456 contingent paticipeting in 32 out of 35 events, this means that more Youths have been engaged and forced off the streets.
I want Nigeria Government through the Sports Ministry to fund sports properly and engage the patriotic and creative minds of the Youth to foster unity across the country”.