Report local sports, former NFA board member urges Ondo SWAN

By Femi Atolagbe
|
Former Board Member of Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Sir Steve Alabi has said it’s important for  members of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) to observe the ethics of the profession to help in the growth of the society.

Alabi, who gave the charge during the association’s Tri-annual  Delegate Congress/ Election at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Pen House Alagbaka, Akure urged the Sports Writers  to also encourage the  athletes by placing more premium on local sports reportage over foreign sports.

The former National President of SWAN added that reporting local sports will impact positively on sports development in our society.

He asked rhetorically that if we do not report local sports how do we grow as a nation?

According to him, Lawrence Adegbingbe ,Isiaka Adeyanju, Fatima Yusuf and Oluyemi Kayode  and others are all products of local sports reportage, if we didn’t report them nobody will know them . Perhaps they may not be motivated to do well in national and international sports.

The veteran Sports Writer, therefore encouraged the upcoming writers not only be sports presenter rather sports reporter, adding that they should go deep in asking questions.

“Stop depending on press releases from media officers

Write developmental stories that will encourage the sports administrators to have new ideas about how to run sports”.

He averred that Sports writers should be conversant with the language of the game they are reporting and speak the language professionally .

He however, advised the newly elected executives of the association to make the welfare of their members priority in terms of organising periodic training for them. “They should call on veterans to talk to those who are still practicing ,they will drink a lot from the words of their predecessors”, he added.