Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has promised to use more of the state’s resources to develop more budding sports talents in the state.
Ahmed, while reacting to the Man-of-the-Competition award to Flying Eagles star, Taiwo Awonoyi, at the end of the Glo Super Six competition, believed that Awoniyi, a native of the state, benefited from the state government’s talent hunt programme for the youth.
The governor, according to his Chief Press Secretary, said Abdulwahab Oba, Awoniyi would be given all the needed support to enable him reach the zenith of his chosen career like Argentine football star, Lionel Messi.
He said: “We monitored cleverly the recent Super Six Invitational Tournament in Abuja, especially the performances of Awoniyi, a Kwaran, who featured for the Flying Eagles that defeated all the premier league clubs at the tournament before pulling a draw with the national Under-23 team.
“The feat made the Flying Eagles to win the tournament. In Kwara, we have a rich history of producing great sportsmen and women, especially the youth. We are poised to continue in this, as we believe that sports worldwide today have gone beyond mere entertainment.
“We are watching Awoniyi. We are in constant touch with him because he will be a light-bearer of the state’s footballers in no distance future. We will do everything within our powers to make him succeed and thus set him on a pedestal that would make other youths in the state to emulate his industry and good character.”
The governor pledged that his government would organise more youth competitions and resuscitate the school and local government area sports competitions, in collaboration of the private sector.
His words: “If Kwara had in the past produced footballers like Rasheed Yekini, Moses Otolorin, table tennis star like Atanda Musa, sprints stars like Ahmeed Adio and Fatima Yusuf and many others, we can produce more world beaters, even under this government, due to the interest in and commitment to talent hunts.”
He urged other youths in the state, not to be used as political thugs as God did not create anyone without his ability to contribute his quota “to the development of his town, LGA, state, country and the world”.