Adeleke’s Deputy, Adewusi Reveals Plans To Revitalise Sports Industry In Osun

The Osun State Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Sports, Mr Kola Adewusi ha assured stakeholders and the entire people of Osun of the Governor Ademola Adeleke’s led-administration of transforming the sport sector, OSUNREPOERS NEWS gathered.

Adewusi, who explained this at a press conference on Friday in Osogbo reassured Osun residents of adequate and timely transformation across sport industry.

According to him, “Osun State Government, led by the visionary and dynamic Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, is embarking on a transformative journey to revitalize the sports industry in the state, shape a prosperous future for our people and elevate sports performance at every level, starting from grassroots initiatives to the elite athletes at the top echelon of sports and improve on our sports facilities. We are particularly concerned about the state of the Osogbo Township Stadium which is supposed to be the flagship of all sports facilities at the state capital. Improvement on our sports facilities will assist our youths to engage in different kinds of sports by bringing them out of the streets.

“This administration has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to sports development in the past few months. Key investments have been made in various facets of the sports industry, including the successful sponsoring of the state contingent to the last National Sports Festival in Asaba and variously supported the state-owned football clubs (1), Osun United Football Club in their comapign in the nationwide league which earned them promotion to the Nigeria National League and (2) the Osun Babes Football Club which will be completely overhauled.”

According to Adewusi, some of the strategic steps the state government would be taking included upgrading of sports facilities, Osun State Games village, launching of Osun State Sports Trust Fund and Sports Commission.

Other plans for the transformative efforts are that each of the 30 local government office in Osun will adopt and sponsor a specific sport or games within their domain; re-Introduction of the governor’s cup, reward system, restructuring of the state football clubs, merit based appointments among others.

The commissioner promised total hauling of the sports council, stressing that the era of poor welfarism for athletes and coaches would was over.

Read the full statement below;

Press confernece
Speech delivered by prince kola adewusi the deputy governor and commissioner for sports osun state

Osun State Government, led by the visionary and dynamic Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, is embarking on a transformative journey to revitalize the sports industry in the State, shape a prosperous future for our people and elevate sports performance at every level, starting from grassroots initiatives to the elite athletes at the top echelon of sports and improve on our sports facilities.

We are particularly concerned about the state of the Osogbo Township Stadium which supposed to be the flagship of all sports facilities at the State Capital. Improvement on our sports facilities will assist our youths to engage in different kinds of sports by bringing them out of the streets.

This administration has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to sports development in the past few months. Key investments have been made in various facets of the sports industry, including the successful sponsoring of the State contingent to the last National Sports Festival in Asaba and variously supported the State-owned football clubs (1), Osun United Football Club in their comapign in the nationwide league which earned them promotion to the Nigeria National League and (2) the Osun Babes Football Club which will be completely overhauled.

To achieve a better command of Sportstainment (Sports and Entertainment) industry in Osun State, several strategic steps will be taken:

1. Sports facilities upgrade: A comprehensive upgrade of sports facilities across the State is on our plan. These improvements will extend to the sports facilities in zones such as Iwo, Ilesha, Ile-Ife, Osogbo, Ilesa Orangun, Ede, Ejigbo and so on, ensuring that athletes have access to top-notch facilities.

2. osun state Games village: We will restructure the Osun State Games Village located between Ijebu-Jesa and Ijeda in Oriade local government area. This facility will serve as a hub for athlete training and preparation, as well as hosting various competitions, further solidifying Osun State’s status as a sports powerhouse.

3. Osun State Sports Trust Fund:
Government is set to launch the Osun State Sports Trust Fund. This initiative will encourage multinational companies, private ogranisations and philanthropic individuals to partner with the government , providing vital resources to further develop the sports industry.

4. Osun State Sports Commission:
Government will establish Osun State Sports Commission which will be entrusted with strengthening sports governance, transparency, and control in the management of sports in the State. We will thus join the ranks of states such as Delta, Kano, Lagos, Kwara and Ekiti which this concept of management and sports governance is contributory to the success in sports performances.

5. Adoption of Sports by each local Government: To ensure equitable facilitation of sports development efforts of government, each of the thirty (30) Local Government office in Osun State will adopt and sponsor a specific sport or games within their domain. This collaborative approach will ease the burden on the state government and promote sports across the entire state and for the citizenry.

6. Re-Introduction of the governor’s cup: Re-introduction of the intercollegiate games and the principal cup: Government will stimulate under a PPP arrangement, the re-introduction of the intercollegiate games and the principal cup for the students and the youth.

7. Reward System: The government is committed to recruiting and train the best administrators, coaches and athletes to shore up our position within the sports industry and financially rewarding them in all sporting disciplines based on performance. An annual sports award will be set up to motivate them. This step will not only foster intrinsic motivation but also boost overall job performance. In addition to this, experienced coaches who are “retired but not tired” will also be reabsorbed on a contract basis with competitive remuneration packages.

8. Merit based appointment: Governor Adeleke’s administration is committed to meritocracy in appointments covering sports administrators and other related positions. Nepotism will have no place while ensuring that individuals are selected based on their experience, knowledge and skills, aligning each role with the right candidate.

9. State Owned football clubs: The
government is working on the restructuring and rebranding of the two state owned football clubs: the Osun United FC and the Osun Babes FC. The new management of the clubs will soon be inaugurated to replace the Interim management. Now the our darling club has gotten promoted to the Nigeria National League it behoves on the Government to support the team to get promotion to the Nigeria Premier Football League at the end of the season.

10. Physical fitness and dance sports for all: It is on record that everyone worked for a whole week without a rest, and this cut across all citizens and private organisations including the civil service. As a result, we are introducing a physical fitness and dance sports programme every month to further improve our health and physical fitness.

You will recall that dancing is part of our culture, is physical in nature, irrespective of the age and brings good
social interactions, as a result, the soci0-economic situation of our people will be highly improved.

In short, it increases our aerobic fitness and weight management, better coordination, flexibility and agility in
our work life style amongst others.

11. Abasorption of Contract Coaches by Normalising their appointment (Staffing Them)

12. Encouraging Physically challenged people to be involved in sports to discover their god giving talents.

Finally, our government, under the visionary leadership of Qthe Executive Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola
Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, is committed to ushering in a new era of sports excellence, accountability, and inclusivity. These strategic initiatives will not only benefit
athletes but also inspire the entire community and the citizens of Osun State to embrace a healthier, more active lifestyle through sports

We thank you for your attention