There is Need to Amend Pension Laws to Accommodate Sportsmen<\/p>\n
\u2026they should not die in penury\u00a0 -Senator Shehu Sani<\/p>\n
Zainab Tanimu- Kaduna, NIGERIA<\/p>\n
“Our pension system, the pension commission act must be amended to give people who served this country the deserved honor.\u00a0We must devise ways to give pensions to our players who wore the national jersey”.<\/p>\n
These were the piercing words of Distinguished Senator Shehu Sani. \u00a0A \u00a0Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone.<\/p>\n
Senator Shehu Sani has called for the amendment of the nation’s pension laws to accommodate sportsmen and women who have made the country proud.<\/p>\n
He made the appeal, after receiving an Award of Excellence from the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Kaduna State Chapter on Monday night in Kaduna.<\/p>\n
He had lamented over the way and manner Nigerian players are left to languish in poverty at a time they are expected to be reaping the fruits of their labor.<\/p>\n
“Men and women who served Nigeria in sports are allowed to suffer in pains and die in penury.<\/p>\n
Footballers that we so cherished when in the field who brought honour, are allowed to die in poverty,” The Senator lamented.<\/p>\n
He wondered why Sports is being treated as mere game in Nigeria, rather than as a multi-billion Naira business that it ought to be; saying, that there is the need to have a national sports conference in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
“Sports should be seen as an avenue for job creation.<\/p>\n
“We have not invested in sports and we want to reap gold,” he added.<\/p>\n
He had expressed dismay over the unfortunate scenario whereby young ones no longer have interest in our national league but rather more attracted to European leagues.<\/p>\n
“Our young people know all the players in Madrid, Man U and Barca. They know their birthdays and when their wives give birth but they don’t know the ranking of Nigerian teams.<\/p>\n
“In those days, our teams Enugu Rangers, Pillars, \u00a0Kwara Bombers, UNTL. NEW Nigerian, Prisons all were teams we grew up to cherish. Today, we have departed from that part.<\/p>\n
“Our young people even dump the names they were born with and adopt names of players.<\/p>\n
“Our national team are only supported when they win, if they lose nobody goes to welcome them,” he pointed out..<\/p>\n
The Comrade Senator disclosed that as his own contribution towards uplifting sports nationwide, he had sponsored a bill and has reached advanced stage in the Senate.<\/p>\n
“My bill aimed at decentralization of National Institute of Sports (NIS) is to have it decentralized in all zones. It has passed second reading. When passed, NIS would be close to you and help in develop sports all over the country,” he stressed.<\/p>\n
Government he advised should stop appointing politicians as ministers and commissioners of sports. It should be headed by professionals while enough fund be made available for the sector to strive. .<\/p>\n
“If you must appoint a doctor as Minister of Health, a professional sports personality should also be appointed for sports,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If we want to achieve, we must budget more. Tax breaks should be given to firms which support sports. I must say we must as a people invest in sports.<\/p>\n
“For now we are only interested in results without investments.<\/p>\n
“If we invest in sports, it would provide opportunities for our young men and women. If we invest, we would reap more gold at international outings.<\/p>\n
“National Stadium Surulere is left in disrepair. For over three to four decades, a section of Sir Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS), Kaduna is left uncompleted. He lamented.<\/p>\n
Commending the sports writers Association for their perseverance and keeping the flags flying despite all challenges, he had apologized for collecting the award late.<\/p>\n
For sports to gain more readerships, he advised that publishers should change their style of relegating sporting activities to the back pages of newspapers as that would not attract interest. Suggested that sporting activities be moved to page two of newspapers.<\/p>\n
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There is Need to Amend Pension Laws to Accommodate Sportsmen \u2026they should not die in penury\u00a0 -Senator Shehu Sani Zainab Tanimu- Kaduna, NIGERIA “Our pension system, the pension commission act must be amended to give people who served this country the deserved honor.\u00a0We must devise ways to give pensions to our players who wore the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n