Youth And Sport Development As Catalyst For Ogun State Economy Prosperity -By FBI Oyefeso

Sport and Youth development are separate anatomic engagement that need to be treated as a distinct procedural approach, as such my view is that Youth Development and Sport Development are mutually exclusive, an attempt to tackle them as a singular entity will undermine and exhaust the potentials of both subject matters.

I attempt to juxtapose Sport Development and Youth Development as a catalyst to cushion the development of Ogun State economy under the administration of Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun.

Sport Development:

Unfortunately for us, sport development in Ogun State is in a state of comatose, we have an international stadium that’s laying fallow, that’s building houses without cohabitants. Sport administration all over the world is an exclusive function separated for sport veteran and lovers to Man, sport sector has the capacity to generate billion of Naira for any serious government that understand the potentials in the sector, thanks to his Excellency Prince (Dr) Dapo Abiodun for his intuition to create a separate Comision for sport, a good steps in the right direction I commend.

1. Rebuilding and Organizing our Sport Sector will implies that we identify and engage Various sons and daughters of Ogun State that are veteran and with good records and passionate about socio-development of sport activities in Nigeria and diaspora. Take boxing for instance, Antony Joshua can take on boxing mentorship for our youths with interest in boxing.

2. Identity specific areas of sporting interest to focus as well as investing in infrastructure development in the chosen comparative Sporting Advantage Areas.

3. In other not to build sport facilities without athletes to make use of, we will need to upgrade the capacity of our sport administrators to be well equipped in discharging their functions because they are the builders of our various talents in the sport sector.

4. Revive primary, secondary and higher institutions compulsory participation in sporting activities, inter house sport should be given a new face of importance in other to spur enthusiasm amongst our youth and children. Principal cup, Governors cup and new competitive sporting activities that will discover talents from primary school to higher institutions will need to be supported using the instrument of Public Private Partnerships in the development of Ogun State choice Sport Area Of Development (SAD).

5. Attracting various national and international sporting events to Ogun State will go a long way to expose our youths and children to lots of opportunity for development. And to attract international grants and incentives for sports development from organizations that supports sporting initiatives, the government of the day must take the lead to lobby and diverts every sport development infrastructure and events available to Ogun State.

Youth Development:

It’s important to note that the Youth are the demographic majority and yet with a democratic minority representation in leadership and the key indicator in deciding Economy might of any nation.

Ogun State accounts for over 3.5million Of youth population workforce between the ages of 18-39 years old and maintain an average of 9.9% Unemployment rate with a large army of underemployment within the informal sector of about 3,8million workforce. Ogun State youth Performance indices is manageable when compare to other ailing states in Nigeria.

However, Ogun State youth are the most marginalized when it comes to government suport and accessibility to international development opportunities, financial support and grant to accelerate our energetic youths to grow.

During my campaign as a gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 Election, our research shows that Ogun State can maximize its potential if we are able to tap into the energetic youth population we are endowed with by deploying relevant instrument that will Increase the Total Factor Productivity and boost our GDP through :

1. Capital Goods Investment (CGI):

The life-wire Of any emerging economy is the Informal Sector, Government Must support the informal sector by providing young enterprises with access to technological equipment and production tools that will increase the output in production or trade activities. Take Ofada rice for instance, we can organize the local rice farmer, group them, expose them with the agricultural techniques of 21st century and purchase necessary Equipments for them to increase their total output production yearly, while they repay back on a specific agreed terms, and we must monitor, nurture them as well as connect them to the market with adequate product packaging.

2. Human Capital Investment:

Increase the productivity of our workforce through routine knowledge and requisite skills acquisition and providing access to grants and financial instruments to support the labor force, we must not deceive our people by claiming to have invested in them through training and vocational knowledge distillation without connecting them with financial instrument for start up. And thirdly through

3. Research and Development:

New ideas and innovative way to achieve local efficiency in our production process should be encouraged, investing in research to find the most effective way our people can carry out their various local businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, distribution and marketing of products and services should be the concern of the government

If such investment is done adequately, Ogun State stands the chances of emerging as the Leading Edge State in the Nigeria matrimony and in a short period from now Our GDP of $10,470 billion will accelerate upward and within a short period of 10-15years, more so, our annual IGR Of 7billion will multiply In 2-3 years from now and we will be the rallying point for commercial hub in Africa.

And as Usual, I must remind us that Ogun State is just one of the 37 wife’s that Nigeria presently married, Ogun State is a nation state on its own and a serious government should know that and make plans to secure the future of its people by making adequate plan for the future, this is the lasting legacy Prince Dapo Abiodun will be proud.

FBI OYEFESO
From Odoogbolu LGA,
JMPP Gubernatorial
Candidates
Ogun State 2019.