Grassroots Sports: A Renewed Hope

By Ededet Nyong
It is an incontrovertible fact that the 21st century has renewed the world. This truism has birthed new streams of endeavour in fields hitherto only imagined from robotics to artificial intelligence, avionics to space exploration, entertainment to sports, the world has been lit up, with meteors bestriding it like colossus.
In sports, the meteoric rise to stardom of many an athlete presents a classic case study of the renewed hope the 21st century offers. Sportsmen in the mould of Critiano Ronaldo, Liomnel Messi, LeBron James, Roger Federer, Jon Rahm, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Max Verstappen not only take-home humongous pay cheques in salaries and endorsements, they are privileged to wine and dine with kings and queens.
Conscious of the grass-to-grace story sports offer, the Pastor Umo Eno administration is using it to renew hope to the teeming Akwa Ibom youths who reside predominantly in the state by taking cognisance of the fact that the difference between world beaters and local losers is access to top notch sports equipment and infrastructure. And so the brand new administration moved to scale the already pristine condition of sports infrastructure in the state by inaugurating stadium management committees for the Uyo Township Stadium, Eket Stadium and the West Itam Sports Centre. The administration also renewed the maintenance contract between the state government and the construction giant, Julius Berger for the optimal maintenance of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium. “It is the thinking of the present administration that the optimal utilisation of these facilities by our budding young stars will galvanise them into sporting stars,” Edidiong Stephen, special assistant, media to the commissioner for sports stated.
The focus of Gov Umo Eno led-administration to breathe renewed hope to our youngsters in the grassroots through sports took a new dimension when the administration sponsored over 400 up and coming athletes to the 2023 National Youth Games in Asaba, Delta State for over a week, raw sporting talents from the state in over 20 sports strode their stuff on the courts, fields, track and pitches the tournament held and by October 1st, 2023 when the Asaba youth tourney came to and end, Akwa Ibom placed 11th on the medal table with four gold medals, six silver and seven bronze medals.
Sir Monday Ebong Uko is the commissioner for youths and sports in the state. He also led the state’s delegation to the youth tourney. He told us that with the vim, zest and enthusiasm of the youngsters in their various sports, Akwa Ibom is a heartbeat away from churning out world-class athletes.” He further stated that by sponsoring the state’s contingent, the governor had renewed the hope of the youngsters for a bright tomorrow.
As the renewed hope agenda of the present administration gathers momentum, some athletes are already living the dream by making the state great in the continental as well as world map.Only recently, an Akwa Ibom born weightlifter, Edidiong Umoafia, won three gold medals at the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana, making his debut in the 67kg men category, Umoafia won all the three gold medals on offer in the snatch, clean and jerk and total. Also, Blessing Etim, a female cricketer from the state was part of the nation’s cricket team that won bronze medal at the continental sports meet.
The cricketer, who recently retired from the sport as captain, Female Yellow Cricket Team is looking to give back to her home state. Already, she is putting things in place to establish a cluster of cricket clubs for both male and female youngsters in primary schools. She says her focus is to catch them young between the ages of six and eight and fire their hope for a great sporting future.
Aside weightlifting and cricket, Gov Umo Eno is also widely known as a tennis follower. Even before he became governor, the Pastor-turned-politician had donated a standard table tennis court to the Senior Staff Club of the University of Uyo, led by Engr Otoabasi Ansa as the president. He eulogised the sporting virtues of the state chief executive officer, asserting that his donation of the court had afforded many youngsters a rare opportunity to train using global best facilities on offer there.
Also, before he became governor, the state’s number one citizen had been a proud promoter of the round leather game, football. In his home town of Ikot Ekpene Udo, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area, the then hotelier sponsored the town’s annual football competition for years.He took it a notch higher when in partnership with grassroots sports federation, GRASOF, he single handedly sponsored the Pastor Umo Eno Unity Cup competition for local football clubs in the grassroots. Mr John Ekpenyong, an official of GRASOF, who participated actively in organising the second edition of the competition in 2023 praised the state governor for his love for grassroots sports development.
“If I tell you what it takes in terms of logistic, planning and resources to organise a state-wide tourney for the grassroots, then you’ll appreciate our governor,” he told us. The GRASOF official further revealed that with the annual football meet, many a grassroots football has a renewed hope of taking their craft to the next level.
Perhaps the greatest intervention by the sports loving governor of Akwa Ibom is the revival of the Akwa Ibom State Governor’s Cup. Kept in comatose for over 10 years, the Governor’s Cup is a football competition that brings together budding talents in the 31 local government areas to compete for honours in the round leather game. It usually comes with thrills and frills, excitement and high drama, heated debates and pulsating analysis and lots more. The over a decade hiatus did-not reduce the excitement of fans as they thronged the Uyo Township Stadium to savour the football tourney with relish.
On each matchday, which saw three matches played, the stadium was usually filled to the brim with local fans following their grassroot football stars to the bright lights of the city centre with the renewed hope for a breakthrough football career. According to Mr Samuel Umoh, the brand-new chairman of the State Football Association, the competition which came to a climax with Ikot Abasi Local Government Area carting home the N10 million prize money by defeating Uyo Local Government Area 4-3 via penalties, after a 1-1 scoreline at the end of regulation time, offered many budding football talents renewed hope of transcending from local amateurish football to the professional cadre. This revealed that not less than 10 raw talents discovered during the Governor’s Cup Competition had gone ahead to sign professional football contracts with recognised football clubs like Vandresser FC, Indomitable FC, Dakkada FC and Akwa Utd. “This is the kind of governor we have been waiting for. This governor has renewed the hope of grassroot footballers in the state,” the state FA chief enthused.
TheUmo Eno-led administration is not only prioritising grassroot sports, but also strengthening already existing sporting clubs to serve as veritable platforms to absorb the raw talents once discovered. The state-owned football clubs in various football leagues in the country: Akwa United in the Nigeria Professional Football League; Dakkada FC in Nigeria National League; Ibom Angels in the Nigeria Women Football competition and Ibom Youths FC in the Nationwide League are all properly funded, making Akwa Ibom, one of the few states in the Federation with four professional clubs in its payroll.
Apart from sponsoring four football teams in various national leagues, the state government has also given approval for the organisation of the Akwa Ibom State Football League. To be modeled after the English Premier League, the state football league is to serve as a fertile ground to discover and harness football talents. Mfon Patrick, media officer of the state premier football club, Akwa Utd welcomes the idea. He told us his club desires home-grown football talents and such a league would be the perfect hunting ground. “We have already assigned one of our assistant coaches with the role of watching the local league once it comes on stream,” he said.
While renewing hope for the next sporting heroes, the Umo Eno-led administration is also keeping tabs with already established heroes. One of such greats, the vice captain of the nation’s senior football team, the Super Eagles, William Troost Ekong, is receiving copious attention from the administration. The state governor not only hosted him to a grand reception after his heroic at the African Nations Cup, AFCON, where he emerged player of the tournament, the administration is also partnering the recently crowned Greek Football League Champion as his foundation, Troost Ekong Foundation, hosts charity football match at the Nest of Champions on Sunday, June 2, 2024.
Another sport the present administration is using to renew the hope of the people in the grassroots is boxing. During the last Christmas activities, a full day was dedicated to the discovering and harnessing of future pugilists. The day tagged:ARISE Boxing Festival 2023, formed part of activities at the state’s Christmas Village. A boxing ring was mounted right in the centre of the Christmas unplugged village and amateur boxers from the 31 local government area participated in a knock out competition in both male and female categories.
Mandu Bassey, a female boxer discovered at the ARISE Boxing Festival told us of her pride and excitement to be given a huge opportunity by the government to finally live her dream. She praised the Ministry of Youths and Sports for facilitating her relocation to Lagos where she is actively engaged in upscaling her craft. Similarly, other talents discovered at the boxing fiesta are harnessing their skills back home at the Uyo Township Stadium where a thriving boxing club has come to live. The man who leads the boxing sessions is Effiong Okon, the assistant boxing coach in the state and past Olympian from the 2004 Athens Olympics. He laments of the size of the gym which leads him to set the training ring outside when there’s trails, competitions and sparing sessions. “A boxing ring should not be exposed to the sun or rain,” he says and requests urgent intervention. Idara Udoette, a female boxer there corroborates her coach’s statement. She thanks the state government for the opportunity even as she makes a case for a standard boxing gym for them to train.
Another case the present administration needs to look into is the re-vitalisation of the Akwa Ibom State Youth Games: An innovation of the immediate past administration where school children from the 31 local government areas were brought together to compete for honours in over 25 different sports. Coach Catherine Ewa, a director and head of coaching in the Ministry of Youths and Sports,on request, listed the benefits of the youth games to us and urged the present administration to make haste to get it back on stream. “Edidiong Umoafia and Imaobong Uko would not have been known without the youth games,” she says, referring to the African Games Triple weightlifting gold medalists and the African 400 metres hurdles champion. Coach Ewa also thanks the present administration for facilitating her participation in the Olympic solidarity (IOC) sponsored programmes in conjunction with the International Judo Federation (ISF) Female Olympic coaches at then University of Certferdshire, United Kingdom. An experience she says will surely rob off on our teeming youngsters.
Indeed, this is a golden era for youths in Akwa Ibom State. An era where the state government is renewing the hope of a lot of them, especially at the grassroot, through sports. Using innovations like the ARISE Boxing Festival, the Governor’s Cup, the Akwa Ibom Football League, the cricket cluster clubs, among others, the government is opening up new vistas for the youths, thus renewing their hope for a better and brighter future.
With this innovative approach to governance, the present administration, ably piloted by Gov Umo Eno, has indeed used sports to renew the hope of the youths especially those at the grassroots. It behoves all of us to join hands with the Golden Governor to take Akwa Ibom youths to the pinnacle of self actualisation, using sports as the special purpose vehicle.
And with the governor teeing off, the grass is greatness, through sports.

To God be the Glory!