Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare says the glory and future successes of Nigeria in sports lie in her youth.
Speaking at the end of the Sapetro Future Tennis Championships which held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Court, Lagos on Saturday, Dare expressed his delight and optimism in a glorious future for Nigerian sports after watching youngsters display talents in tennis.
The Minister said what he saw in the final of the championships has reinforced his belief that the focus of his ministry on grassroots sports development was not misplaced.
“We had our focus when we came in, we said grassroot sports development was critical and embedded in that grassroot sports development is ‘Talent Hunt’,” Dare opened up to newsmen after the final game of the Championships.
“Hunting for those talents and supporting them. That is why this is very important and I make it a point of duty to attend tournaments of this nature that have very young people. The future of Sports is in the young people.
“As we speak, under our Talent Hunt programme, we have almost a dozen young people between the ages of 8-12. I have seen some of them in action today and was really impressed and happy with them and they will very soon start a programme working through the federations.”
In conclusion, Mr. Sunday Dare revealed that about two or three more outstanding talents in tennis spotted at the Championships will join the Talent Hunt programme of the Ministry immediately.
