A former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has declared that the unique attraction, huge investments and rewards in the present sports industry is a major shift in the economic balance, asserting that youth unemployment persists because the country ignores solutions.
Delivering a lecture at the launching of frontline Nigerian sports journalist, Dr. Mumini Alao’s autobiography, on Sunday, Fashola predicted a brighter future for the young generation, the former Minister of Power, Works and Housing affirmed that the ironical shift is more important because the profession of sports employs mainly young people from their early teenage years to now about 40 years, with little space for 50-year-olds and above.
On the topic of the lecture, “Re-thinking the current Football Business Model in Nigeria as a Catalyst For Sports Development”, the former Governor restated that given the drastic change in the industry, there must be a shift in mindset by everyone that ‘yesterday’s hobbies, and part-time engagements have become full-time, well-paid professions in today’s emerging global economic order’.
While establishing that there has never been a time like now that talent is substantially and handsomely rewarded, Fashola maintained that sports are creating a vast pathway to a meaningful life, for people who would otherwise have existed on the margins of society.
He stated: ‘These new breed of professionals are the new employers of the traditional professions of lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers, therapists, and others who they just only used to entertain for tokens, in the old economic order.
‘Today, they not only provide entertainment for them, they also employ them.
‘So, when I reflect on the Nigerian problem of youth employment, I tell myself that it persists perhaps because we have been ignoring the solution.
‘It seems clear to me that a major solution for youth unemployment is hiding in plain sight— it is sports development’.
The two term Governor of Lagos State said ‘if we reflect on the number of people that music, film, fashion, and photography to mention a few have employed; and reflect on the possibilities which lie in sports with team and individual performances, it will be clear what we have missed’.
An example of such sports-based employment, according to Fashola, is the author, ‘Mumini Alao, in whose honour we are gathered, and Complete Sports magazine, which gave him a career in sports journalism as an editor and writer for over 3 (three) decades’.
He challenged that apart from some sports dedicated print media outlets and perhaps for the sports on radio, how many dedicated sports TV stations have been licensed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and how many are functional.
‘For context, I ask you to pay attention to the Super Sports channels on our DSTV bouquet, and the last time I counted there were 15 dedicated Supersport channels covering tennis, cricket, NFL, Football, snooker, wrestling, golfing, motor racing, basketball and more’.
Still, the former Minister posited that the real story is the jobs created on each channel for reporters, camera men, script writers, editors, producers, technicians and many more.
He stressed: ‘Think therefore of the number of jobs in Sky sports, ESPN, DAZN, BEMSPORTS, Fox Sports and the many dedicated sports channels that exist the world over.
‘And these are just jobs that support sports, not the jobs of the sportsmen themselves’.
Against this background, Fashola called on the government to embrace sports as part of the country’s national development plan.
He advised that after putting sports in the national development plan, it is necessary to take many more steps, including creating an all-of-country awareness, using every media portal possible that as a people, we are committed to optimising the enormous possibilities of sports as not just entertainment but also as a business and a profession.
He added that the country must develop the manpower capacity for training talent, nurturing talent, and optimising their potential into positive outcomes.
The book unveiling was graced by eminent sports personalities, including: former Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Eno; Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Shehu Dikko, ex-national football team stars ‘Mathematical’ Segun Odegbami and Etim Essien; foremost Sports female broadcast journalists Modele Sarafa Yusuf and Aisha Falode; media entrepreneurs and executives; the author’s associates; friends and families.
