very Nigerian that grew up in the early 1980s knows and must have participated in one form of school sports competition or the other. Either at the primary or secondary school levels, most young Nigerians then could vividly recall those glory days where fresh talents were discovered in various sporting activities ranging from athletics, basketball, hockey, handball and most spectacularly in football.

While it’s a known fact that school sports festivals provide a veritable platform for identification and nurturing of potential beneficiaries of that opportunity, presently it’s not the case in Nigeria and particularly in Nasarawa State as schools sports competitions have totally vanished from the activities of most public primary and secondary schools.

It’s no wonder that sport enthusiasts atribute the current inability of the country and even Nasarawa State to excel in local and international sports competition to the absence of a recognized path to grooming talents in sports like before through primary and secondary schools competition.

Indeed, the advantages of combining education with sports are too numerous to mention suffice to say however that athletic training and academic study are interrelated as both are two sides of one coin.

Sports in education are an integral part of the curriculum. It helps to shape a person’s personality and contributes to their holistic development.

If the advantages of sports in education are many, the disadvantages of removing sports from education are visible for all to see. Absence of a peer review mechanism in sporting activities, especially in public schools is said to be largely responsible for the poor performance of the nation’s sports men and women in both continental and world championships, making it difficult to develop and inject fresh blood into Team Nigeria’s contingent.

This is obviously the main reason why in a state like Nasarawa State that has great potentials in youths who could effectively represent the state across every type of sporting engagement, Nasarawa United, was recently relegated from the nation’s elite football competition, the Nigeria Premier League.

There are many educational benefits to sports, and not just for the physical since it’s generally accepted that sports positively impacts student academic success as well as their health and lifestyle.

However, if a country like Nigeria and Nasarawa State in particular lacks an environment that is conducive for children to play and exercise, then the future will not be rosy for especially football. This is essentially true because it’s on record that for a new player to get to play in the World Cup he must have put in place a minimum of 10 years’ practice. This is also true for the Olympics: you need 10 years’ training to win a medal. Some players in the last World Cup were 19, meaning they have been playing football in conducive environments from age nine.

Furthermore, with sports now being a major revenue earner and source of employment for many, it’s inconceivable that nothing tangible is being done to rejuvenate sporting activities in primary and secondary schools so that fresh talents can be groomed to boosts the chances of Nigeria in general and Nasarawa State in particular in all sporting activities.

In Europe for instance, the sports industry’s contribution to the European economy is enormous. The industry contributes more to the European economy than agriculture, forestry and fisheries combined. If other sectors that benefit from sports are included, the share of the continent’s sports GVA jumps to 2.98% or 300 billion Euros.

In terms of jobs, the sports labour market accounts for 2.12% of the total employment in Europe, equivalent to about 4.5 million sports-related jobs. The largest number of sports-related jobs is in Germany, estimated at 1.5 million jobs. Sports and sport-related activities are estimated to supply over 400,000 full-time jobs in England, or 2.3% of the country’s jobs market.

Considering the prevailing harsh economic situation in the country and the growing unemployment mostly amongst youths, Nigeria and indeed Nasarawa State should really tap into the huge prospects of the sports sector, which can be futher boosted by evolving a robust sports competition among schools like it used to be obtained in the past.

It’s for these reasons and more that the recent efforts by a non-profit organization, the Aliyu Bello Charity Foundation to rejuvenate and bring back the glory of football completion in public primary schools by organizing the maiden Nasarawa State U-13 football championship should be seen as the right step in the right direction.

In what may seem to many as salvation from on high, Hon Aliyu Bello, grassroots mobilizer and philanthropist, founder of the Aliyu Bello Charity Foundation, decided to detour from his known activity of supporting the educational pursuit of the children of the less privileged in the society, to financing and supporting the organization of the state’s first ever U-13 football competition where the 13 local government areas of Nasarawa State were earmarked to participate.

At the end, 11 local government areas participated in the event namely Lafia, Keana, Keffi, Kokona, Karu, Awe, Akwanga, Nassarawa-Eggon, Obi, Doma and Wamba. Each team came to Lafia and stayed throughout the duration of the competition.

Right from conception, Hon Aliyu Bello, who doubles as the State Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), left no one in doubt as to his zeal and commitment to rejuvenate sporting competition among primary and secondary school pupils across Nasarawa State. His first major assignment then was to assemble a crack team that will constitute the committee that will assist him bring to fruition his desire to organize the maiden Nasarawa State U-13 football championship.

Hon Aliyu Bello devoted his time to consult critical stakeholders from the state where he shared his vision to organize the football competition amongst primary school pupils in the state, seeking for their support towards making the dream a reality.

This saw the organizing committee transverse the length and breadth of the state and even Abuja to meet prominent sons of the state with a view to soliciting their support and cooperation to host the first ever U-13 football competition in the state.

It was indeed a successful outing as starting from Governor Abdullahi Sule to his deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe, including Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, heads of various ministries, departments and agencies within the state and in Abuja, not only welcomed the idea but pledged to support the endeavor.

After meticulous preparations which saw the organizers expend stupendous amount of time and resources, the maiden Nasarawa State U-13 football championship was kicked of on May 22, 2023, with eleven out of the 13 local government areas on ground to participate in the one-week encounter. The opening and finals of the championship were dully incorporated into the schedule of activities marking the second term inauguration of Governor Abdulahi Sule and his deputy.

In a speech before the kick-off of the finals of the championship between Kokona Local Government Area and Wamba Local Area at the football pitch of the Federal University of Lafia, Hon Aliyu Bello restated that the essence of the competition is to address the frequent loses suffered by the country and state in various sporting engagement locally and internationally.

“We have been getting it right since the era of schools sports. Players like Daniel Amokachi, Rashidi Yekini, Samson Siasia, Tijani Babangida, Sani Adamu and a host of others were discovered during schools sports.

“That is why I don’t want to only educate them on knowledge only, I want to educate them on physical and mental alertness. If we continue to educate them and we know that football is now an investment, we should also invest on talents so that they can pursue their career in football,” he said.

In order to further harness talents to be discovered during the competition, Aliyu Bello announced plans by the foundation to establish a football academy, the first of its kind in Nasarawa State.

“And with your support we will partner with the government to establish a football academy in Nasarawa State. I am going to work out the blueprint for the establishment of Nasarawa State Football Academy,” he added.

The organizer of the competition expressed optimism that Governor Sule, alongside tinguished Senator Umaru Tanko Al-makura, his friend Distinguished Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, will be able to reachout to clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and to invite them over and invest in Nasarawa State, as according to him, sports is now big investment.

He used the opportunity to announce further that the Aliyu Bello Charity Foundation is also planning to pay the fees for less privileged children to sit for NECO exam this year.

“We have paid already for 500 to wrote JAMB. We have also organized to host these primary school pupils to a dinner to celebrate this year’s children’s day, where various awards and prizes like the best player award will be presented there,” he said.

In a response at the event, Governor Abdulahi Sule said organizing is the best step to take in order for the state to have a formidable team made up of indigenes of the state.

“And we must have a Nasarawa United that will comprise of people from the first to the last people who live in Nasarawa State, people who have the love of Nasarawa State, people who have the commitment rather than those that are coming in to look for money,” the Governor said.

Represented at the event by his deputy, Dr. Emmanuel Agbadu Akabe, the Governor pointed out that football is now big business and organizing such competition remains the best way to go.

“I want to pledge here that from now henceforth that we shall have this competition on a yearly basis in Nasarawa State.

“But it’s not enough to have the competition because what happens to the talent. From these pupils that competed, we will select five from each local government to form an U-13 football team.

“I want to use this opportunity on behalf of His Excellency to direct the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Sports to work directly with this organizers to ensure that this five people from each local government that will be picked form the core of the Nasarawa State U-13 and organizers of this competition to propose ways on how we can keep this children together to ensure that we have a standard U-13 team in Nasarawa State,” the Governor added.

In a dinner organized at the Taal Conference Hotel to mark the end of the competition and also celebrate this year’s Children’s Day with the participants, the organizers of the Maiden Nasarawa State U-13 Football Championship announced various mouthwatering prizes for the participating teams and individuals.

At the event, attended by prominent stakeholders and lovers of sports, the winning team from Wamba Local Government Area carted away the trophy and a whooping five hundred thousand Naira. The first and second runner-ups being Kokona and Lafia Local Government Areas, received aside their trophies, cash awards of three hundred and fifty thousand and two hundred thousand respectively.

The fourth placed team from Keffi received one hundred thousand naira as consolation.

Other prizes splashed on the participants include the best player, most valuable player and highest goal scorer who each got thirty thousand naira, most valuable player, 30k. The fair play team also received one hundred thousand naira.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, in a show of solidarity, announced separate prizes of two hundred and fifty thousand naira, two hundred thousand naira and one hundred thousand nairafor the winners, first and second runner-ups respectively.

In a post mortem with members of the organizing committee, acknowledged the challenges the committee encountered while preparing for the competition.

“This is the first time whether we like it or not, the first time will afford us the opportunity to do more in the second edition. We now know where we made mistakes, some are avoidable, some are beyond our control. The ones that are avoidable we can make amends and move for the next championship.

While assuring of early preparations for the next championship, Aliyu Bello challenged members of committee to come up with ideas on how to contribute towards organizing the next competition.

On how the foundation intends to harness the talents discovered during the competition, he announced plans by the foundation, in collaboration with the Nasarawa State government to establish a football academy.

“The organization wants to register a football academy so that together with all of us, we bring in our best to have three sets of academics U-13, U-15, and U-17. And we will be able to partner with other academics both nationally and internationally.

“Everybody should think outside the box. Everybody must add value. We are looking at the success not what we spent. We must uplift the championship together. For the first time we organized the competition, we provided two sets of jerseys each for the competing teams and boots. This is no small achievement,” he added.

In a vote of thanks, Chairman Organizing Committee, Mallam Danmusa Mohammad, who doubles as the Director of Information, Ministry of Information, as well as National Vice Chairman, North Central, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), appreciated the organizer for initiating the project and for finding members of the committee worthy to assist him to bring to fruition his dream to impact on the youths.

Danmusa thanked Aliyu Bello for affording members of the committee the opportunity to contribute and add value to the development of the youths through sports.

He assured of the commitment and determination of members of the committee towards ensuring that the next competition is organized with minimal hitches.

The Maiden Nasarawa State U-13 Football Championship has come and gone but the memory lingers on. The expectations from the raw talents discovered during the competition is such as to galvanize the organizers to do more and to ensure they find an outlet to harness these talents, especially that the competition has become an annual event.

Those individuals and organizations that partnered with the organizers to make the event successful must be acknowledged especially the management of the Federal University of Lafia and Government Science School Lafia who made available their pitches for hosting the matches.

Also worthy of mention are individuals and organizations like Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, NPHCDA, amongst others and the Provost of College of Education Akwanga who donated cash and provided vehicles for conveying players to and from the pitches.

The event was the brainchild of the Aliyu Bello Charity Foundation in collaboration with the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education, Ministry of Local Government, Community Development & Chieftaincy Affairs, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, and Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB).