The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr
Nsima Ekere, has promised to uphold sports development in the Niger Delta
region and list it as one of the legacies he will bequeath to the next
management of the interventionist agency.
Ekere, who is the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress,
APC, in Akwa Ibom State, spoke after teeing off the NDDC Pro-Am
Championship at the Ibom Hotel & Golf Resort in Uyo on Saturday.
According to the NDDC Managing Director, the four-day golf tournament which
ended yesterday, (Sunday) would be encouraged to give youths of the region
a sense of competitiveness.
He said: “I will love to see this tournament turned into a yearly event.
Unfortunately, I am not going to be in NDDC forever. But even if I have to
leave, I will like to include it as one of my legacies to be captured in my
handover notes.”
Ekere said he would be delighted if the managing director that would come
after him would see the need to continue to extend NDDC’s support to the
tournament because “golf is a beautiful sporting activity all over the
world.”
He remarked that NDDC had been involved in many sporting activities in the
Niger Delta region and the country at large. “We believe that it is one way
we can take our youths away from the vices of militancy and other
criminality,” Ekere said.
He stated further: “We have a lot of talents in the Niger Delta. If these
talents are developed properly, they can help not just in creating jobs,
but also in boosting the economy of the region. Therefore, we hope to give
our youths the opportunity to develop their talents because sportsmen and
women are now among the wealthiest in the world today.”
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that in promoting sports, the
Commission was not looking at the returns to it as an organisation but
rather for the benefits to the communities in Nigeria’s oil-rich region.
Ekere declared: “We want to be sure that whatever investments we are making
in sports will bring out talented people and employ men and women in the
region.”
He noted that the Commission had recorded a number of successes in the area
of sports development, especially its contributions to the successful
outing of Nigeria in the last World Cup in Rusia.
According to the NDDC Managing Director, the Commission contributed to the
hitch-free performance of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and the
Super Eagles at the Russia 2018 World Cup. “For the first time, the NFF was
able to meet all its financial obligations by paying all due allowances to
the players. We are very proud to have been part of that effort and we will
continue to support sports development in the country,” Ekere said.
One of the organisers of the Golf tournament, Mr Edidiong Idiong,
acknowledged the important role being played by the NDDC in sports
development in the Niger Delta region. He noted that the NDDC-sponsored
golf tournament was a platform to discover new talents and encourage
emerging ones.
Ibitoye Abosede, Ph.D
Director, Corporate Affairs
November 18, 2018.