President of the Nigeria Rolling Skating Federation, Comrade Joseph Evah has said the forthcoming National Skating League will help in curbing the growing spate of youth restiveness.
Evah who made this known at the 1st National Delegates Conference in Lagos recently, said the modalities to ensure a successful take-off of the league before the fourth quarter of the year were in the process of being finalised.
Speaking to reporters after the conference that drew members from the states of the federation, Evah noted with optimism that he was confident that the league will not only be successful in the area of discovering talents but also achieve the body’s objective of stemming youth restiveness in the country.
He said he was worried with the growing rate of continuous blowing up of oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta, a trend which he traced to idleness of the youths, noting that with sports engagements like the soon-coming Skating and Rolling League that some youths will be actively engaged in activities that will fetch them some financial income.
“When we want to do something, we don’t look back and I am hopeful that when we start our skating league that the high rate of restiveness in the land will reduce because such a programme helps to divert the attention of our idle youths from bad things to useful and productive ventures.
“We must rise as a country to help our youths, especially at a time like this when things are so bad, that youths are taking to criminal activities. Sports bodies like us want to direct these youths in activities that will ;profit the society, not destroy them and we are hopeful that when we start, the lives of these youths will be better before long.”, added Evah.
On the body’s plans to make the staking league a reality, Evah, who is the Coordinator of the Ijaw Monitoring Group said, “there are some people in the country that we will appeal to, in order to ensure that the present youths are engaged in diverse ways.
These are talents that can make the country proud, so there is need to encourage them,” He warned skaters who use the sport to commit crimes on the roads and highways to desists from such, noting that “we have set up a task force to checkmate this ugly trend in order to bring credibility to the sport.”
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