SPORTS PERSONALITY: We need round table discussion to move sports forward in Kwara – Umar

Umar Balogun is the Special Adviser to the Kwara State Governor on Conflicts Resolutions and also the Chairman of Ladorb Football Academy. In this interview with MIKE ADEYEMI, he speaks on the urgent need for stakeholders in the sporting industry in Kwara State to have a round table summit so as to move to the next level. Excerpts:

What are your involvements in sports?

I play table tennis and football at the local level. But I never took it up as a career. There was not enough encouragement, and that is the reason we are trying to rewrite the narration through Ladorb Academy.

Why the passion for sports?

Sports is a universal language which binds people together regardless of their culture and traditions. Sports seems to be a benchmark which unites people of diverse race. With sports you hardly care where anybody comes from. Sports unites the whole world and it is my primary objective to bring people together in harmonious co-existence via the sports.

How do you juggle sporting activities with your official assignments?

I was able to do this because sports in the other hand is getting the youths engaged positively. If we really want to tackle restiveness and other vices in this country, we need to engage the youths in sporting activities. We need also to look at the psychological mind of our youths. What  they like and we must channel our energy towards that. What they love most that we can use to preach the gospel of peace and harmony. So we need sports that will be able to carry larger percentage of our youths along. Sports is one of the fastest ways to preach culture of peace. With sports you are likely to meet people you never met before and which ordinarily you wouldn’t have met.

What has been your personal commitments to sports in Kwara State?

I host competitions and my own competition is at the grassroots, bringing people together to bring about mutuality among the people.

I started about three years ago by staging soccer competition at the grassroots.

I have also sponsored some young talented footballers to the trial level across the country. I did that all alone to ensure I bring some level of cushion to youths that have passion for soccer, but don’t know where to start.

Are you of the school of thought that Kwara State needs sports summit to move forward?

Yes, it would be fantastic if we can have a summit on sports.

We need to have a round table talk in the sports industry in the state to address some current challenges bedevilling the industry. When we have the forum with stakeholders, we will be able to profer logically solutions to some social vices in the country.

If we can sit down as stakeholders, as committed Nigerians and as people who really want progress in this country -we can put forward a lasting solutions to the lingering challenges before us.

Sports will eradicate unemployment, sports will foster peaceful co-existence, sports will also eliminate insecurity.

With the summit, we will be able to come out with policy paper in which we will be able to see where we will be in the next five, ten years so that we can continue to build on the visions in order to realise our potentials as a country.

As a matter of urgency, we need to have a summit to pull stakeholders together, fashion the way forward so that we can move to the next level.

What is the rationale for setting up Lardob Academy?

It used to be Lardob FC, and now converted it to Lardob Academy.

The motives behind it is that we want to see how we can discover raw talent in football and possibly to see how we can assist them beyond the shores of this country. If we sponsor them after discovering they have talent, it is a two way thing: they will make money, we will also make money as well.

But basically, it’s a service to humanity, not the money. It’s either here or there.

That is just the rationale and motive for setting up Lardob academy. And I have been funding it solely.

How would you rate sports developments in Kwara State?

Well let me say we are at the progressive stage. As more people come into the sports business, the better for the industry in the State.

So, we are still in a progressive way. We can’t say we are doing bad. If I do my part, another person does his, then we synchronise, the better for us.

How do you relax?

I relax by catching fun with people and making people happy. I play table tennis too.