By Sule Aliyu Bauchi
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) under the leadership of its MD/CEO, Mohammed G. Alkali, in fulfilling one of the Commission’s mandates, organized a grand final of the Secondary Schools Sports competition for both Male and Female athletes
The grand final of the Competition was officially declared open at Late Sir, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium (ATBS) Bauchi, with participating contingents from Adamawa, BauchÃ, Borno, Gombe Taraba and Yobe States that constitutes the region.
The athletes will be participating in Five sporting events that includes Football for only Male players while Athletics, Basketball, Volleyball, Table Tennis and Lawn Tennis involves both the Male and Female and is expected to end on Friday 15th November 2024.
In a remark during the colorful opening ceremony, the Managing Director of NEDC Mohammed Alkali who was represented by Barrister Kalipha Lawal, encouraged the participants to put in their best in the various events as the Northeast will support best Athletes to further their education through scholarships.
He announced that the Commission has approved the competition to continue as a yearly event.
The grand final of the Competition was officially declared open at Late Sir, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium (ATBS) Bauchi, with participating contingents from Adamawa, BauchÃ, Borno, Gombe Taraba and Yobe States that constitutes the region.
The athletes will be participating in Five sporting events that includes Football for only Male players while Athletics, Basketball, Volleyball, Table Tennis and Lawn Tennis involves both the Male and Female and is expected to end on Friday 15th November 2024.
In a remark during the colorful opening ceremony, the Managing Director of NEDC Mohammed Alkali who was represented by Barrister Kalipha Lawal, encouraged the participants to put in their best in the various events as the Northeast will support best Athletes to further their education through scholarships.
He announced that the Commission has approved the competition to continue as a yearly event.
He announced that the Commission will also establish a Sports Academy in Bauchi to encourage and develop the youth for a purposeful future through sports in North East.
He stressed that the Commission is now poised to rebuild the North East by creating an enabling environment for the recovery and development of the Region.
” According to him, one of the Fund’s mandates is the promotion of sports for youths development considering that sports have been proven to be an effective tool for bringing communities together and fostering social cohesion and peace-building”.
“This is why the tournament and competition are organized to promote unity, peace and regional integration”. He emphasized.
Earlier in his address, the Executive Director Humanitarian, represented by Mr. Joshua Ibrahim said the Program is to organise competitions where talents can be discovered and nurtured in conjunction with established institutions, provide youths with local and international opportunities to engage in professional sporting careers for enhanced income
This can be achieved through two-pronged approach: Organizing sporting competitions across the region and Identification of talents through systematic documentation of recorded accomplishments; developing the capacity of games masters in schools and enrolment of competent youth in sports academies for further develop
“Thus, it is essential, therefore, to begin remediating all those human development and multi dimensional poverty indices challenges in all the States in the North-East and to generate the needed human capital capacity to drive the various socio-economic sectors of the Region.
“The Commission is intended to address the poor human development indices, high illiteracy rate and high poverty levels of the North-East, by developing sufficient human capital to acquire the adequate capacity for infrastructural and socio-economic development of the North East subregion.
“It is to also galvanize partners’ synergy in ensuring the delivery of qualitative learning to students, support the immediate and midterm injection of multi-sector market-driven skills into the region as well as support the injection of specialized professional skills over the mid to long term in the region that are both locally and internationally relevant”.
He explained that, as part of its responsibilities,the NEDC is to contribute to peacebuilding in the region through strategic grassroots sports Initiatives, create a platform for networking and cross-pollination of ideas by the upcoming North East Intelligentsia.
In his response, the Commissioner, Ministry of Youths and Sports Development Bauchi State, Salis Mohammed Gamawa expressed gratitude and appreciation to NEDC for finding Bauchi State worthy of hosting this great events with a view of making North East Youth purposeful and economic independence through sports.
He also on behalf of Bauchi State government and its sports loving people, appreciated the Commission for making the Competition a yearly program and the pronouncement of Commitment to establish Sports Academy in Bauchi, which will go along way in maintaining peace and order in the Region.
He explained that the program is in line with the dreams of Governor Bala Mohammed towards development of Youths to reduce the crime and criminality in state for citizens to sleep with two eyes.
However, two Football Matches were played after taking oath of the Commencement of the competition by the representatives of athletes and officiating officials.
In the first Match, Adamawa Football team beat Yobe 6 – 5 through penalty Kicks after ending the Match 1 — 1 at regulation time, scored by Sulaiman Isa and Abdulhameed Tahir respectively.
While in the Second Match, Bauchi sent Borno out of the tournament as Yahaya Alpha’s 30th minute goal gave Bauchi advantage to proceed in the football event.
