The Federal Government has been called upon to invest heavily in sports development instead of military hardware as a way of addressing insecurity in the country.
The admonition was made yesterday by the former minister of sports, Mr. Solomon Dalung, at the ongoing Federal Public Service Games taking place in Minna, the Niger State capital.
Mr. Dalung said the billions the federal government spends on tackling insecurity with no end in sight, if channelled into sports to engage the active segments of society, will go a long way in tackling the menace of insecurity.
According to him, "I'm appealing to our governments at all levels to invest heavily in sports instead of putting billions into tackling insecurity for over two decades without any end in sight."
The former minister said a kinetic and non-kinetic approach to addressing insecurity cannot solve the challenges insecurity poses to the nation and advocated that if the government looked at the direction of sports, they would see the antidote to all the problems of social and physical insecurity in the nation.
"The problem in this country is that we invest less in sports and more in a kinetic approach to insecurity. We need to know that kinetic and non-kinetic operations alone cannot solve the problem of insecurity. Insecurity can only be addressed if the active segment of society is engaged dutifully in sporting activities. It's only sports that have the space to accommodate them. Because energetic young men will use their talents to earn medals instead of guns," Mr. Dalung said.
He said sports were used in other developing continents as an economic and social catalyst that engendered peace and development.
He said, "Sports is one of the alternatives you will use to solve the challenges of developing nations. Developing nations in Asia and Latin America use sports to solve their social problems.
"When you invest in sports, you are going to keep young people out of the street. They have the energy, they have the talents, and the insecurity that offers them alternatives will also be addressed.".
The former minister commended the organisers of the sporting festival and said the federal civil service games were the most consistent, formidable, and strong events in Nigeria, disclosing further that they have maintained their tradition for over 42 years.
Mr. Dalung said, "When the national youth festival collapsed, when the national sports festival collapsed, it was the federal civil service games that stood in as a unifying factor in this country. Because it takes all civil servants from the federation off their desks to the tracks and fields where people previously unknown to each other meet and strike friendship.".
He also commended the Niger state government for putting up the facilities and the enabling environment, saying that by doing so, the state was at the forefront of uniting the country and managing diversity, which the nation critically needs at this point in time.