I‘ll use sports to invest in the youth — Antwi Owusu
An independent Presidential candidate, Mr Kwaku Antwi Owusu, has assured to develop a national policy that would lay emphasis on holistic sports development if he wins the 2016 Presidential election.
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This, he said, would enable the youth with potentials in various disciplines nurture them more comprehensively.
Speaking to Graphic Sports moments after he picked his nomination form, Mr Owusu expressed concern about the lack of attention given to sports by the present and past governments, saying such an attitude towards sports development had been the bane of its decline in our generation.
“ I will use sports as a bait to invest in the youth. This is because the youth will be my number one priority, so investing in sports will enable them nurture and develop their potentials. This will not only reduce the rate of unemployment in the country, but will also enable the country generate much foreign exchange from those who will excel at the international levels,” he explained.
Mr Owusu assured to use not less than seven per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to invest in sports to enable the youth develop their potentials.
He accepted that football had become the nations passion but said the time had come for other sporting disciplines to be given national attention to accelerate sustainable development.
“It seems the understanding of sports in the country is only football, which is not the best. We have other sports disciplines that need to be nurtured to enable the youth develop keen interest in areas where they have the skills,” he noted.
He mentioned hockey, cricket, athletics, boxing, table tennis, long tennis, volley and swimming, among other disciplines that need to be developed.
“ Our youth have varied interest in sports, but because it has not been holistically developed, such talents have gone waste and the nation had become the eventual loser,” he bemoaned.
Explaining, he said had the nation taken keen interest in spreading sports infrastructure, the youth with potentials would have developed them at the second cycle and tertiary for them to be competitive at the international levels.
