SPORTS DEVELOPMENT WIL BE ONE OF MY LEGACIES IN NDDC – NSIMA EKERE

PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – 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.