Hon. Muideen Alalade is the Kwara State commissioner for sports, youth developments. In this interview with MIKE ADEYEMI, he speaks on the achievement of his ministry in recent time as well as the commitments of Kwara State Government towards ensuring that Kwara United FC get continental ticket. Excerpt:
Sir, tell us your antecedents in sports administration?
I retired as a League I referee. I grew up in Kwara referee council. When I was active, I participated in officiating many matches at the then National League.
I obtained my league I referee in 1993 with the likes of Iraboh. I have played my role in sports developments in Kwara.
I played football a little, though not as a professional. I played much at the grassroots. When I discovered that age was not on my side, I enlisted into officiating crew.
What has been the contribution of your ministry to sports developments in Kwara State?
To the Glory of God, between last year and now, we have engaged in grassroots developments of our sporting activities.
In football as you can see, we have been supporting the Kwara Football Academy to put more people from rural area so that they can develop their talent, make them useful for the feeders team of Kwara United.
Apart from that, in Basketball, our darling Falcons team in Kwara are doing very well at the national level.
They had already qualified to represent Nigeria in Africa tournaments. In another sporting events like baseball, last year we hosted national baseball and softball competition in Kwara, tagged: Toyin Ojora Saraki baseball competition which was very successful. We have our partner from the United State of America.
So far, last year was full of achievements in sporting arena in Kwara. We equally hosted JAMB football competition which also went well.
We hosted other events like North Central Zone Sports Festival. It went down well too. We won many laurels.
Kwara United our darling team is doing very well. Soonest, we want to organise Kwara U-18 football competition. Arrangements are in top gear. The Executive Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed has given us all the enabling environment along side the financial support needed.
Are you of the opinion that Kwara School curriculum need to be aligned to accommodate sporting activities?
It is very important and even in our ministry, in this year budget, we made adequate provisions for schools sport event.
In the past, that is where we used to tap raw talents. This year we want to go back to the system and ensure we put all enabling environments in place before our administration round up, so that the incoming administration can build on that.
I think, there is no other alternative to that. School curriculum need to be altered in line with grassroots system of catch them young.
After leaving office, are you sure your ministry will have bequeath legacies in sport developments?
What I would urge the incoming government to appreciate in our own government, especially in this ministry is our openness.
Whatever you want people do for you if you are in the other side, do it.
That legacy of openness and having feelings for incoming generations is very important.
No matter how little the resources, we should give our teeming youths more opportunity to showcase their talent.
We have put in place certain template which the next administration can build on. As you can see, the youths has the larger population in Nigeria. If these people are not well taken care off, they will engage in social vices that could ruin their lives.
How would you adjudge the performance of Kwara United at the abridge league?
I have been following the club keenly and we have been praying for them too.
You see, we had challenges at the start of the season and that is why we gave the management team a free hand, so that they would have no reason to fail.
The state government is investing huge amount of monies in the club. So, we want results as you know it’s being long that we qualify for continental and that is our target.
That is the reason we give them all necessary supports, morally, financially even in terms of prayers so that they can achieve this.
In terms of their performance at the ongoing abridge league, I want to give them a comparative 65 per cent performance. The standard we are now is not what we really expected.
We want the team to get back to where it belong. There is room for improvements and they are improving.
If you watch their matches, you will see that they are trying to move above average.
We want excellent results, and that is why even yesterday, I met with the management and charged them to call all the coaching crew together. They don’t have any justification for not doing well.
So far, we have not lost any home match but we still believe they can still have pocket of away win to give us a better chance, that is what we hope for.
By and large, it has not been bad with the team.
How would you rate Kwara soccer fans’ conduct during matches in the recent time?
On the average, Kwara Football fans are far better off in terms of well manner during matches in comparison to other state.
The act of hooliganism and match obstruction is not common in Kwara.
Having said that, I still want to appeal to Kwara United fans club to be patient and liberal with both the team and the officials.
Let’s path legal means to ventilate our infrictions or challenges instead of resorting to violence.
