By Francis Ewherido

The newspaper and electronic media headlines that followed the announcement of the Minster of Youth and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalong, were oddly and uncomfortably familiar: “Buhari Appoints ‘unknown’ Dalong for Sports.” “New Sports Minister unknown.” “Minister of sports, another square peg in a round hole.”

Solomon Dalong

“Youth” has become the Esau of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. “Sports” has usurped its pre-eminent position. “Youth” is an orphan, nobody to pursue its case. But hawks and doves are hovering all over, “protecting” the interest of sports. Some are sincere; others are just there for selfish reasons. Unless the minister is purpose-driven, they will confuse him. He will never be able to carry everybody along because there are various contending cliques. That is why some well-known sports personalities keep away from the politics around the “sports minister.”

For as long as I can remember, successive ministers of youth and sports have paid all the attention to “sports” and little to “youth.” This might partly be responsible for situation we find ourselves today. The Nigerian youth faces very clear and present dangers, which need urgent solutions.

Dalong has his work cut out for him. His ministry must become the engine room for youth development programmes to get us out of this quagmire. But to succeed he must interface with state governments, local governments, which I believe should be the hub of youth re-engineering, and other federal ministries. For instance, many youths are unemployed and need jobs. The Buhari government promised to create millions of jobs per annum. Dalong needs to collaborate with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to corner a chunk of these jobs for youths.

Nigeria has more than enough arable land to feed the whole of West Africa, but we are a major importer of various food items. If properly organized, farming can take millions of interested and willing youths off the street. The youths can play a major role in our drive to be self-sufficient in the production of rice, wheat, palm oil and other food crops. Dalong should collaborate with Audu Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture in this regard.

Another ministry Dalong needs to collaborate with is the Niger Delta Ministry. Currently, armed robbery, cultism and kidnapping reign in the Niger Delta, perpetrated mainly by youths. Human development must precede physical development; Dalong should liaise with Pastor Usani Uguru, his counterpart in the Niger Delta Ministry, to positively engage youths in the Niger Delta. Experience has shown that it is possible.

That our educational institutions are in a sorry state is common knowledge. Many graduates have no corresponding knowledge and skills to justify their certificates. I have seen graduates who cannot write a job application letter. Some cannot write a simple and correct sentence. I even heard, although I refused to believe, that a university graduate could not write his name correctly.

There are many small and big businesses in search of fresh blood, but they cannot get the quality they want. Some employ and retrain to meet their requirements. Dalong has got plenty of work here. He needs to work with the minister of education to improve the quality of our graduates.

Thank God Dalong is a former prison officer. Many of the criminals today are ex-convicts. Some go back to crime less than a month after being released. Our prisons do not reform prisoners, many come back worse. The bulk of convicts and persons awaiting trial are youths, from my prison visitation experience. Dalong should use his knowledge of prisons to work with the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, to make our prisons institutions for correction and reformation, especially of the youths.

Many youths are misguided, their value orientation is defective. They need reorientation. Dalong needs to work with the Minister of Information and Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in this regard. He also needs to work with the ministry of Women Affairs to ensure that issues concerning the girl child are in the front burner of the ministry. The girl child still lags behind her male counterparts on many fronts. He should also engage people in the culture and entertainment sector. This sector is very critical for youth development.

While all these are going on, he should also keep his eyes on sports, the second leg of his portfolio. Sport is a youth activity. Older people, who engage in sporting activities, only do it as a matter of life and death, i.e., to stay healthy. I see sports as one avenue to keep youths busy, reduce crime and get them off the street. For many years now, sport has been the ticket of many youths to better, fulfilling lives and escape from poverty. More youths with different talents should be discovered.

Under Dalong, sports should be one of the vehicles to solve the various problems Nigerian youths are going through. If in the process, we win laurels, enhance our international reputation and achieve other goals, fine.

The minister has been a local government chairman, so he is familiar with youths and the grass root. At 51, he is not far from the youths age-wise, so he can easily empathise with them. His prison work would also have brought him in close contact with the youths; he should know their yearnings, aspirations and frustrations. I do not see any reason why he should not succeed if he does his job with utmost vigour and surrounds himself with the right people.

These sports “stakeholders” always want to create the impression that managing sports is rocket science. In modern day management and administration, administrators move across fields; what is most important is the ability to manage human, material and financial resources. Cognate experience will always come on the job. One of the previous managing directors of Airtel Nigeria left a food and confectionary company headship for the Airtel job.

NB: Please, we shall resume the purposeful living series next week. I just wanted to get this off my mind. Thanks