INTERVIEW: Gov Sanwo-Olu Is Youth And Gender Friendly, He Meant Well For Lagos’ Younger Generation – Gafaar

Mr. Oluwatoyin Gafaar, is a household name when it comes to sports administration in Lagos State. Since he assumed office as the Director-General of Lagos State Sports Commission, he left no one in doubt of his ability to excel in the service to the motherland and he has been doing this judiciously to the delight of all the stakeholders in sports in the ‘Centre of Excellence‘. P.M. EXPRESS met him on the eve of the closing ceremony of the recently concluded Lagos Sports Summer Camp at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere where the last phase of the camping was held. Gafaar spoke on the camping exercise, the preparation of Team Lagos for the National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara State next month and the passion Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has for sports as a tool to develop and engage the youths of Lagos State

The philosophy behind Lagos Sports Summer Camp

After the EndSars protest last year, we discovered that we need to change the narration and focus of our teeming youth to cater for them and develop their talent and we believe that the children who are in their formative stage are very important to us. I am happy that we had a successful programme with the excitement in the children and that of the parents.

The feedback we are expecting is for the children to engage their parents on the daily need at home. We have exposed them to the ability to build a power bank, the solar system that will charge the power bank and other life skills. Don’t forget that every home needs all these to keep the house working. We informed the parents that these children can start all these with as little as N2k. The philosophy behind the Life skill activities in the camp is that we want the children to take the advantage of our immediate environment by providing solutions to the immediate needs of the people. We also told the parent to record these children on video and send this to us for us to further celebrate these children

The reception of Lagos Summer Camp by the children

I am happy to say that most of the children are outstanding, and I must confess that the camp exposed me to a lot of things about our children This was a camp that we had children from diverse backgrounds. A child of a prominent Kabieysi in Lagos was here with us, a child of chairman of one of the local councils and one of the lawmakers in the state. It was indeed interesting with the networking that happened during the camp. The coming together of these children further testified to the fact that we adults must pursue unity in this country as do the children.

Our children were better educated and better exposed. It is at this formative stage that we can change their mindsets, orientations and horizons for a better Nigeria. I can see the discipline in these children, the one the adult cannot even cope with.

What to expect in the next Lagos Summer Camp?

The 2022 edition of Lagos Sports Summer camp will be bigger. We had this year’s at three centres, the plan is to have it in the five divisions in the state and more students at each centre. We may go for 500 per centre, and we hope that private entities will join us next year, though we had some of them donating some items to identify with what we did this year.

Preparation for the National Youth Games

We are planning a step further by taking up our rightful position in Nigeria sports, this is non-negotiable and everyone at the Sports Commission is on the same page on this. We are going to Ilorin for the Youth Games better prepared than before. One thing remains important that we would not join the bandwagon, we won’t go to the game cutting corners, we won’t go to the competition with overaged athletes and we will not present mercenaries.

On Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s giant strides in sports

Sport is very fundamental, it is high time we use it for the right purpose. This is what the sports-loving governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo Olu has been doing and he is doing. In the next six to eight months, we will see tremendous things happening in Lagos with the coming up of 10 additional stadia of international standards. We are doing this in order to engage the youth, empower them to be good citizens. One adding value that will accompany the building of the stadia is the economic activities that be around these sporting facilities that will further engage our people.

The Governor is always at home with any programme that is youth and gender-based. This shows his love for our youths and his passion to see them excel. I pray that God will continue to strengthen him for the youth of Nigeria,