Osun Assembly Awaits Executive Bill On Sports Development

The Chairman of the Osun State House of Assembly Committee on Youth, Sports, and Special Needs, Hon. Abiola Awoyeye, has disclosed that the executive arm of government will soon transmit its plans for the revitalisation of sports in the state to the House.

The plans, it was gathered, would be based on the reports submitted to the state government by a Committee set up to look into the challenges confronting the sports sector and come up with possible ways of addressing them for the development of sports in Osun.

OSUN DEFENDER recalls that the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Prince Kola Adewusi, who doubles as the state Commissioner of Sports, had set up a 9-man Sports Committee to help in revitalising sports in the state.

But nothing has been heard of the committee’s report months after it was submitted.

However, during a familiarisation visit paid to his office on Tuesday by the leadership of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Osun State Chapter, Awoyeye was asked to give updates on the report and what the state government intended to do about it.

The Chairman of Osun SWAN, Timothy Agbor, who led his team to the lawmaker, also inquired from Awoyeye what the state government was doing to transform Osogbo City Stadium and the entire sports sector in general.

Responding, Awoyeye commended SWAN for its initiative and bold steps of prompting government to be responsible and responsive.

He said he has spoken with the Deputy Governor and that the report would soon be sent to the House of Assembly as an Executive Bill for consideration.

Addressing the SWAN leadership, the legislator, who represents Ife Central Constituency said, “I want to thank you (SWAN) for not joining issues. Development is not a personal thing, it is collective and we have to see to the development of our communities and state. All the issues you have raised today are very cogent and I am going to shed a lot of light on them.

“When it comes to development, without infrastructure, it is nothing. I always make an example of Akwa Ibom Stadium. They built that stadium and gave Julius Berger a ten year contract to maintain it. That is a government with foresight because they know that after construction, there must be maintenance.”

He said the government is serious about uplifting the standard of Osogbo City Stadium,adding that no fewer than ten Construction Companies had submitted their presentations for the project.

While expressing displeasure about the abandonment of the stadium by previous governments, Awoyeye said, “We have invited a lot of contractors to present their quotations and presentations for the stadium. We had about six to seven of them.

“The revamping of that stadium has to come in a separate budget so that we will face it squarely. We can even split the budget since government is continuum.We are doing to alot to revamp sports in Osun.

“Nothing was done in Osun sports in the past 15 years. Nothing was done at the stadium.”

The lawmaker disclosed that the state government is in talks with the Kantangwua Construction Company that handled the stadium and that part of the money previous government owed it would soon be paid.

He mentioned some of his efforts at developing sports in the grassroots, promising to engage the executive on the creation of sports Commission.

Timothy Agbor commended the lawmaker for his strides and urged him not to relent.