By Wuraola Oyedokun
President Bola Tinubu has been urged to invest in grassroots sports development to harness youth potential and curb the ongoing protests, restiveness and violence.
There have been protests for the past five days mainly by the youths over hardship in the country.
To curb the protest, , who is a psychologist and sports enthusiast, made the call while speaking at the Novelty Match organised to promote grassroots sports at Bayse One Sport Centre, Jericho, Ibadan. The event was organised by Think It Photography.
Ogunyemi urged the government to redirect energy of the youths towards sports at the grassroots in order to harness their potential.
Ogunyemi said: ‘’There is an event we do every year. We have been doing for the past 11 years. We organize this Novelty Match to encourage grassroots football in the city of Ibadan and Oyo State as a whole. We are trying to promote the football at the grassroots. Think It Photography affiliated to Pryde Media organised the match. We want to put Ibadan into the global map. It will address youth restiveness.
‘’We should all come together to support our local football, instead of channeling our energy and time to foreign clubs, we need to watch and support the indigenous clubs. Government is not investing enough in sports. I will advise the government to support sports. There are a lot of benefits in supporting and investing in grassroots sports.
”’Mr. President should invest in grassroots sports. If we have about four pitches in almost every neighbourhood, that alone will engage the youths and there will be less of violence and protests. He should harness youth energy for grassroots sports development.
‘’We should all support the local clubs and sports. We can come together to support local football. The government should invest more in football’’.
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