The Executive Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Dr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq, has said that the NSA is throwing a challenge against the narrative that sport is an avenue for the dropouts.
He expressed this creed during the visit of the Sierra Leone Golf Association at his Signal Hill Road office on Friday, 28th June, 2024.
Speaking about golf, the President of the Sierra Leone Golf Association Ibrahim Tito Sankoh told Dr. Abdulai that their game has been perceived by many as one for the rich and the elite, a misconception, he said, their association has suffered from.
“Golf is played at competition level, and not for pleasure as perceived,” he declared.
Highlighting their challenges, President Sankoh said they only have one golf club in the country.
“This is preventing us from spreading the game. Equipment is also a major challenge for us as the gears golfers use vary from junior, professional, to amateur.
“Capacity building for our coaches is another concern. Our coaches need to be kept abreast with the changing rules of golf,” President Sankoh said, adding that they have represented Sierra Leone in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia, and Zimbabwe and won laurels.
“Out of the six previous representations, Government could only support one. We look forward to more as we have competitions this year,” he told Dr. Abdulai, saying that they have developed a business plan and want to take golf to schools, colleges, and communities.
“We want to go to the provinces and train PHE teachers who, in turn, will train people at community levels and set up structures,” he surmised.
In response, Dr. Abdulai appreciated President Sankoh and his team for maintaining the Association amid prying challenges, describing those who spend their personal resources on sports as heroes.
“It is good you want to take golf to different places of the country. With sports, we can take our youths out of the streets, and we can reduce prostitution and other social vices in our society.
“Sports is something young people are interested in. We need to liberalize the space,” the NSA Boss said.
On the challenges, Dr. Abdulai said the distance from other areas to play golf in Freetown is a major disadvantage to some people. “We can only get such people to play golf if we take the sport to their different communities,” he emphasized.
Regarding capacity building and equipment, the NSA Chief said they will try to mobilize support from different sporting associations around the world to help in that direction.
“The Authority will facilitate the movement of trainers to come to Sierra Leone and train our technical people in sports.
“The NSA has asked the Chinese Embassy to support our sporting disciplines with modern equipment, and golf was in the list we submitted.
“The Government wants to use sports to create temporary and permanent jobs for the youths of this country, and the NSA is ready to give them the opportunity,” he concluded.
The National Sports Authority is an agency of Government established by an Act of Parliament with the mandate to promote, encourage, develop and supervise all sports and sporting activities in Sierra Leone and to provide for other related matters.
