Rising from a media parley in Kano, North West Nigeria, Sports Journalists, under the aegis of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN Kano chapter, have reached an understanding with other critical football stakeholders to pursue the single agenda of promoting peace and national unity during the 2026 FIFA World cup .
Nigerian Kicker reports that, the Sports Writers, during the media parley session, organized by Sahel Sports News in collaboration with American Space Kano held at Kano state Library Complex, vowed that in spite of the failure of the Super Eagles of Nigeria to qualify for the World Cup, they would resort to the new dimension of setting up a national development agenda through football .
Earlier in his remarks, the News Editor, Sahel Sports News, Abdulgafar Oladimeji had tasked Nigerian Journalists to always use the World Cup period set the ball rolling on topics that are geared towards national development.
“The World Cup is not just about going to compete and win or lose matches, Nigerian Journalists must shift their focus from just reporting the participation of Nigeria and other national teams of their interest. In the biggest global sports events like the World Cup, our Journalists need to fashion out to seize the vacuum to arouse curiosity on critical national and global issues that are associated with SDG and MDG human development agenda,” he said.
Abdulgafar added, “during the World Cup period, as Sports Journalists, let us from now henceforth, set and pursue national agenda on issues like Peace, health, economic issues, education, issues of inclusion, human rights, gender based issues, community development, security, issues that affect our lives, lets always not forget that football lives in every aspect of our national lives ”
“Though Nigeria would not be at the World Cup, the media can still make Nigeria be at the World Cup by using their Platforms help drive discussions around national developmental issues.
“Usually the World Cup goes beyond just qualifying to play at the Mondial, the Nigerian media should from now learn to tie the world cup to one or more national issues.
“I am here today to task Kano Sports Writers to set the ball rolling. Others across Nigeria follow the trend.”
In his contributions, Executive Director, Fortress Centre For Human Rights and Peace Advocacy, FOCHPA comrade Abbass Ibrahim, said “peace envelopes all human activities, noting that Sports Writers should always be conscious of the important need to use their skills in promoting peace, rather than resorting to negativity, just because Nigeria failed to qualify for the world cup they should avoid inflammatory reports, this is unprofessional.”
He warned that the media as a tool, if not professionally deployed, could in contrast, become a weapon of destruction, citing the role played by the media in fueling the Rwandan genocide
Abbass urged Sports Journalists that, despite Nigeria would not be at the world cup, they should adopt peace promotion during the world cup period.
Peace Initiative Network, PIN, Femi Shodipo represented by Coach Friday spoke on the inevitable essence of peace in communities, highlighting on how football is a tested effective tool for peace building in communities.
He tasked Sports Journalists to synergize to take better advantage of those football elements that have proven to be effective towards promoting peace and stability at all times.
He said PIN have invested hugely in the area of peace building through Sports programs in communities in Kano and Ogun states.
He testified that these investments have yielded positive returns adding that the Network would always collaborate with sports media practitioners to promote national peace and unity through sports.
The National Executive Committee , NEC member Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Lurwanu Idris Malikawa, in his goodwill message, appealed to Sports Writers to allocate massive media space and emphasis towards reporting grass root sports events.
According to him, there exist presently huge deficit in the reportage of local and national sports events.
He lamented that the Nigerian sports media space has been overtaken by the reports and much emphasis on international sports events, this he said, has led to the widened decline in sports development and promotion in Nigeria.
Malikawa, explained that “this has played a significant role in the decline of the level of success been recorded by Nigerian national football teams.”
He also decried the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 FIFA world cup, citing that the failure to address issues of development and promotion by stakeholders is responsible, stating that the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 FIFA world cup is undoubtedly a failure that should be squarely addressed.
The chairman, Kano NUJ Correspondents’ chapel, comrade Muritala Adewale assured the august gathering that the chapel under his new leadership would revive the old days of good relationship its members enjoyed with sports reporting.
He said sports is amongst the predominant factor in the contemporary world, pledging that the chapel will strengthen its relationship with bodies like SWAN and SWIBODA with the aim to enhance sports reports that will foster sports developments in the state.
He also align with the massive outcry by Nigerians over the failure of the Super Eagles to pick the FIFA 2026 World cup ticket, he described how heart broken it has been for Nigerians to wake up that morning to nurse the pains that their darling national team has again failed to pick the ticket to be at the global stage for the largest world football party.
Adewale said, it is time to address whatever were the hiccups responsible for the monumental decline been witnessed in Nigerian football.
“This has to be addressed, nobody is happy with our football at this moment,” he lamented.
Chairman, Nigeria Football Coaches Association, NFCA, Kano, Bar. Ibrahim Gwadabe, decried what he called, “the worrisome state of sports infrastructure in the state”, saying that no meaningful sports development could be achieved without the availability of adequate spots infrastructure,
Gwadabe specifically appealed to Kano state government to cease from the disruption of sports facilities in the state lamenting that the disruption of sports facilities across the state is taking its “heavy retrogressive tolls” on sports development in the state.
He further lamented that new sport facilities were not springing up rather, existing ones are been disrupted or erased entirely without replacement, “this would not augur well for the well being of the aging citizens and the development of Kano youths, who both require these facilities not just to shape their health well being, but also to help in the development of future professional athletes.”
The secretary, Kano NLO Forum, Lawan Wada, who spoke on behalf of the forum said, NLO clubs in the state were ready to key into the promotion and building of peace through football programmes, assuring that their platform would be made available to support any project that would enhance peace building and its co-existence in the state.
The Deputy Executive Director, Sports Without Borders Development Association, SWIBODA, Sydney Emeafu said it is time to go back to the drawing board to confront the challenges facing the development of sports in Nigeria.
“It is no longer time to pretend that all is well with sports in Nigeria, sports no longer put smiles on the face of Nigerians, like it use to do in the past, everyday the tales of our sports performance on the continent and on the international stages leaves us with a bitter taste.
“Nigeria was the power house of youth football, from being the first world champions, when we won the first U-17 world cup to be hosted in world history in 1985 in China, we dominated the game at this level for years and today we can no longer dominate west Africa, countries like Benin Republic and Niger Republic can confidently challenge our football power without shivering, where did we get it wrong.”
“Before, in the world of football by just mentioning the name Nigeria even giant nations like Brazil, France, England they catch cold, but today Lesotho and Zimbabwe and Rwanda can stop us from going to the world cup. 20 years ago I could not have imagined that Benin republic and Lesotho will deny us from going to the world cup, well the earlier we wake cup the better.
“Nigerian government must wake up and address this challenge, football loving Nigerians should not fold their arms and legs, all hands must come on deck to save our football.” Emeafu said.
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