President Muhammadu Buhari has re-affirmed the federal government’s commitment to sports development in the country.
The President made the remark while declaring open the 1st session of the African Union Sports Council (Region 2) minister’s meeting today, at the ECOWAS Parliament, Abuja.
He said the purpose of the meeting affirmed the seriousness that African nations and other stakeholders attached to sports on the continent.
“I congratulate the African Union Commission for going the extra mile by giving adequate attention to sports development on our continent as evidenced by the recent restructuring within the African Sports Movement that gave birth to the African Union Council.
“My country Nigeria attaches great importance to sports, hence our acceptance to host this important meeting to provide the needed platform for our sub-region to hit the ground running through the formulation and implementation of ground breaking and insightful sports policies.
“In line with the overall objectives of the African Union, I urge you to broaden your deliberations to align sports with peace, security, education, health promotion, social mobilization, employment creation, socio-economic development, regional integration, conflict prevention and resolution. Our sub region tends to benefit a lot from such alignments.”
President Buhari promised to give the necessary support through the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports to enable the Council to accomplish the task of the newly created African Union Sports Council (Region 2) for overall success.
He also approved the engagement of few pioneer secretariat staff to facilitate the takeoff of AUSC Region 2 and pay them in line with Personnel Scheme of Service of the African Union Commission while diplomatic status will be accorded the Headquarters and secretariat staff of the AUSC Region 2.
