Remove Politics From Sports….National President Of Taekwondo Urges Federal Government,

The National President, Nigerian Taekwondo Federation, George Ashiru has appealed to the federal government of Nigeria 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 dragged it to the mud due to poor policies and implementation.

“Let 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 whatsoever. We do have wrong leaders in sports in this country as well getting people who are not connected to athletes to run various sports all over the federation”

“You plan this, they tell you put your paper away and say a change in the government is a change in the system, these are the real thing that is affecting all the sports and even if we go to RIO, the results would have been the same like other sports. There were no training tours and the federal government says there is no money, brought in budget issues, oil price went down, I am trying to be as honest as possible”

He further said, “We cannot allow these things to happen, you don’t hold individual responsible for structural problem, 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 etc, you need electronic version. There are great and wonderful talents in our country and I keep saying it that when you are over focussing and over centralizing in one or two sports to deliver, you failed.

Consequently, the National President condemned the heavy taxation on supposedly sports sponsors whom he alleged are taxed heavily, “How can you expect these companies that are supporting sports to 40% tax when they are sponsoring or supporting our sports? We have told them to come and bail us out and you taxing them heavily, they will not support”

These companies have told National Assembly to provide certain incentives so as to enable them supports our sports but it failed on deaf ears, “Do incentive to sponsors to make them want to sponsor our activity, they have told us that they will not support combatant sports, so everything we are hearing we do in taekwondo is individual effort, but it is a lesson because we have now realised that as much as possible, it is private initiative that will drive the best achievement in sports”, he revealed.

One complete set cost 1000 Dollars and you are bringing 60 athletes to camp and that is just a national team. You need a partner, 32, multiply by 2, you are now talking in the region of N50million and you are expecting Shell run, Nestle etc to come and bail you out and you are taxing them 40%, they will not, they have told National I am interested in grassroots sports, discovering, supporting, given much back up. And these are the things the sponsor’s sees and when they see that, there is consistent efforts, they will say, let us support this sports.

On Feature of Taekwondo, the Ashiru said that the feature is bright, it is positive, we are building a new generation of leaders and as long as the generation of leaders are coming up, well mentored, know the rules and regulations of the game and be passionate, the sky is the limit. The 1st Calabar open taekwondo championship was not happening because government put money down, it is happening because the practitioners themselves went out to look for sponsors and that is very importance and that means they are passionate and these are the generation we are talking about and they don’t want it die.

He reiterated that Taekwondo produces 16 Gold at the All African Games while Football produces one and it is a hit and miss, football doesn’t get second chance at all to make it, Basket ball produces one, all team event produces one but taekwondo produces as many as we want. We know sponsors love basket ball, they love football but it is time to think about Nigerian opportunity to be multi-medal winning country by diversifying their investments and start supporting sports like ours that has potentials to produce four Gold medals at Olympics and 16 Gold medals at the World Championship. Don’t give us the money, we will tell you what we need, this is the plan, follow us.

The President who recalled that he had been in calabar for the third times to support one initiative or the other, to conduct similar and be part of similar was here this time around to attend the 1st Calabar open taekwondo sponsored by Royal International Farms and estates limited, first royal microfinance, triplestar companies. “I was in calabar in 1990, it was NUGA games and that was when I and few others introduce Taekwondo to NUGA as a school sports. We didn’t wait to be President before start having impact”

“Presidency just gives you opportunity to reach to wider audiences in the name of the sports, we have done our best and history will judge who has done well or not. The federation has done much to make the game wider, we have been to Olympics four times and we have won two medals in two Olympics, gold and silver. The silver medalist is here with you in calabar assisting to do the game. This same man is going to Kano twice this year for the tournament.