By Jamilu Uba Adamu
We all know that the benefit of sports or being a sportsman or woman is to stay active and engaged to be physically fit and healthy.
Sports or sporting activities are widely known and recognized as agents or tools that will shape our minds and keep us active.
Therefore, limited sporting facilities in any society are dangerous to the survival of that society as its members risk being attacked by diseases. Thus, the importance of sporting facilities cannot be overemphasized.
This means that the deterioration of existing sporting facilities and the erection of buildings on the scanty football pitches in the state is the contributing factor that pushes some of our youths towards unhealthy and even dangerous habits, such as drug pushing, violence, etc.
Last week while going through DailyTrust Newspaper, I came across a tragic story of a young boy who was stabbed by his neighbor for playing football in the street.
According to the story, it was why a Wanzami, a local barber named Hassan, tried to stop Muhammad and his friends from playing football in the neighborhood, alleging that they were spoiling the frontage of his house.
A victim’s friend said the young men moved to the next street and continued playing. But not satisfied with their relocation, the Wanzami chased them with a knife and stabbed Muhammad in the neck.
The above incident is very disheartening and worrisome because I see playing football as an essential part of some of our youth’s daily lives and that is why they use open fields, empty roads, and school fields to play.
It is a fact that Kano city with its high population of teeming youths, most of whom find solace in playing football every evening with their friends anywhere in the state.
It is a fact that the availability of football pitches in their neighborhood is lacking as most of the primary school pitches which were the only available football fields are now filled with buildings that make using them impossible.
In the late eighties and up to the early 2000s there were primary and secondary school football pitches across Kano city every evening you would find many young people gathering and playing football together.
Nowadays, most of those primary schools’ football pitches don’t exist anymore, resultantly leaving our teeming youth with no option but to play on the streets.
It is a fact that the youth need an outlet to vent out their energies and where they were not provided with such sporting facilities in their communities, there are chances that they will be inclined to vent it out on the streets in the form of street crime such as phone snatching, gang fight (Yan daba), etc.
That is why during their separate speeches at the state chapter of the Sports Writers Association calendar launching which took place at the Press Center Kano, the former Kano State commissioner of information who is also SWAN patron, Nuhu Danburan and Kano State Football Association Chairman Dr. Sharu Rabiu Inuwa Ahlan plead on the need on the government to redevelop Mahaha Sports Complex and make standard football pitches available throughout the state.
They called on the Kano State Governor, Eng. Abba Kabir Yusuf, through the acting commissioner of Sports Hon. Safiyanu Kachako, to develop sporting facilities across the state to prevent the recurrence of Rijiyar Lemo’s sad incident.
The state government must understand that sports breed peace and unity. It also helps curb some social vices by positively engaging the youth in sports that could make them earn a living and have a bright future.
