The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has called for more investment in sports to gainfully engage youths and forestall civil unrests.
Mr Jinad Yusuph, the Coordinator of NYCN in Ojo, Lagos State Chapter, said in Lagos on Wednesday that such investment would to a great extent, discover talents in various sports and aid the youths to be confident.
The youth leader, who spoke against the backdrop of youth unemployment and involvement in social disturbances, described sports as an option to youth unemployment.
“Youths are full of energy and are in constant need to explore their world with strength and exuberance; if those energies are allowed to remain latent, they can be misdirected.
“With good investment in various sports in terms of facilities, trainings, competitions and tournaments, younger persons of this country would be gainfully engaged, thereby making them better persons.
“With the zest Nigeria youths use to follow organised sports in advanced countries, it goes a long way to show how they will wish to explore and make fortune in those sports if given the opportunity.
“Sport is money and stardom making venture and those two variables drive the latent energy of youths to potentiality,” Yusuph said.
He, however, pleaded with Federal and State Governments to invest more in sports, saying that such would aid rapid development of the economy.
Yusuph added that sports had the capacity to absorb millions of younger persons in the country, adding that they could be lured into crime due to idleness.
According to him, Nigerian youths have so many sports icons in the country who can be role models in their pursuit for a career in sports.
