‘Academics not enough to secure youth future’

By Dickson Omobola

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Q & N Sports Development Ltd, Prince Adewale Adegbite, has said sports, not academics alone, can secure a brighter future for Nigerian youths.

Adegbite, while lamenting Nigeria’s poor representation at the last Olympic Games, said it exposed the urgent need for grassroots sports development and talent discovery across the country.

He said it was concerning that a country with a population of over 200 million people could not produce up to 20 athletes capable of representing it at the global stage.

He spoke during the Waves of Champions Football Tournament 2026 held at the Gateway International Stadium, Sagamu, Ogun State, by Q & N Sports Development Ltd, in collaboration with Soyoye Akinyode Welfare Initiatives.

He said: “In Africa, education is always the priority. Parents don’t believe in sports or entertainment. Currently, entertainment is what everybody wants to do. Growing up, parents wanted their children to be lawyers, doctors; anything short of that is considered a failure to their family. Therefore, the reason why we are having this event is to do talent hunting actually. The reason why I decided to embark on this mission is because during the last Olympics, the representation of Nigerians at the Olympics was despicable.

“For a country that is the most populated Black nation in the world and the most populated nation in West Africa, over 200 million and still counting, we could not field 20 athletes to represent our great nation, and we call ourselves the Giant of Africa. I want to discover talent and start nurturing them and have them represent my brand locally and then, essentially, start representing Nigeria globally.

“There is a saying that apples don’t just grow on trees. If you compare what we are doing in Nigeria and what other nations are doing, you will not be satisfied. They start talent hunting early. They start looking at their potential, their strengths, and their weaknesses, and what they do is they work on those things.

“That is how elite athletes are developed from the grassroots. What I have discovered in our country is that every time we have athletes representing us, it is always older people who are just passionate about it. Without support, without training facilities, without any way to actually help them get better. So, it is very important for us to start from the grassroots.”

Also speaking at the event, Senator representing Ogun West, Solomon Olamilekan, represented by former Chairman of Sagamu Local Government, Prince Daisi Akintan, said: “I commend the organisers and participants. From what I can see here, it is of world-class standards. The organisation that organised it did well, and for the performance of the athletes, I rate them very highly. It is a talent-hunting competition, and I am sure that in years to come we will have champions from this event.”

Also speaking, an organising committee member, Olufisola Ige-Lahanmi, said: “The future for this event is that we will get them, we will catch them young, as we are doing now. We will get them, we will breed them and of course, get them to represent Nigeria on the global stage. What the future holds for this is that we are going to get all these young talents, we are going to work on them.

“Right now, you see that we are trying to gather them; they are going to do an orientation. We are going to unveil them maybe like a month from now, get their parents, get their support, get them to sign and document them. So before we now go to the next step, which is camping them, having them do some things, and prepare them for the future.”

Meanwhile, the Radanuwa of Idado in Sagamu, Oba Oriyomi Soile, said: “It has been a very wonderful event. I have seen a lot of talents here. I commend the organisers of this programme. I believe if we have a lot more of this and support from private organisations, government and well-meaning individuals in society, we will be able to curb a lot of menace among our youths, misbehaviour, and drug addiction. I think this is a good way to go.”

For Bolatito Adegbite, she said: “I see this event as one that can be used to hunt talented youths. If we want to build our nation, this is one of the ways we can do that. There are a lot of youths stranded in communities doing nothing, getting involved in drugs. If we really want to reach them, I think we can use sports. I am imploring government to use this as an avenue to invest in our youths.”

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