By Matilda Ikediobi

Non-governmental organisation, MMSports Foundation, has urged government to establish athletics facilities in schools, saying grassroots development is key to the growth of sports in the country.

The foundation noted that, unlike in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, where every district has athletics clubs accessible to schools for training, Nigeria needs a more strategic and structured approach to sports development.

Founder of the foundation and UK-based athletics coach, Oluwatobi Montgomery, said this at an event where the organisation announced it was working to partner with Ogun State government to develop a statewide athletics structure anchored in secondary schools.

Montgomery said the initiative was in alignment with the NGO’s goal of motivating school alumni to create opportunities for students to progress, gain exposure to scholarships through sports and ensure sufficient competition for scouts to identify talent.

She said: “What is lacking in athletics here is that, in the UK, we have athletics clubs in every district where different schools train in the evenings. We don’t have that here in Nigeria. How do we enable these children to experience athletics? The best way is to provide it within the safe environment of their schools.

“That was the plan we realised would work, because we don’t want to place the burden on the government to build a stadium in every district or local government. Instead, let’s develop facilities within schools.

“And since states often lack the funds to support this, given that education is free, we propose leveraging alumni who have left school to fund these facilities. I would love to work with the government to consult and roll out this initiative in as many schools as possible across the country.

“If we want to discover talent, build leaders, and help children thrive academically and physically, we must integrate athletics into the school system.”

On working with Ogun State, she said: “We have started work the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology. Also the sports director. They like the idea and the proposal is that I will start consulting with the schools. We have selected 13 schools in Ogun State. We are hoping to probably kickstart in April when we will have a fundraising event.”