Remove politics from sports, Ashiru tells FG
The President of Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, George Ashiru, has appealed to the federal government to remove politics from sports.
Ashiru who was speaking with our correspondent in Calabar said as long as people want to have position for the sake of positions, they don’t have passion for sports but drags it to the mud due to poor policies and implementation.
“Let the federal government of Nigeria remove politics from sports, as long as people want to have position for the sake of positions, they don’t have passion for sports. We do have wrong leaders in sports in this country and most of them are not connected to the athletes.
“There were no training tours ahead major tournaments like the Olympics and the federal government says there is no money; they brought in budget issues, oil price went down! I am trying to be as honest as possible because all these are affecting sports development in the country.
“We cannot allow these things to happen; you don’t hold individual responsible for structural problem and you cannot expect me to solve a problem which I have no power to solve. The athletes are there, the talents are there but for you to compete, you need what is called head guard, body guard and electronic version etc. There are great and wonderful talents in our country and I keep saying it that when you are over focussing and concentrating on one or two sports, you fail,” he stated.
Ashiru condemned the heavy taxation on supposedly sports sponsors whom he alleged are taxed heavily.
“How do you expect companies that are supporting sports to pay ‘heavy tax,’ when they are sponsoring or supporting our sports?
“We have told them to come and bail us out and the FG are taxing them heavily, this is sad. We need a change of heart in this regard. These companies have told National Assembly to provide certain incentives so as to enable them support our sports but it failed on deaf ears,” Ashiru concluded.
