About three weeks ago, if you had been in the city of Ilorin - especially, if you had made a walk around the University of Ilorin campus where the 5th National Youth Games took place, aside the fact that you would have been entertained by the electric atmosphere, you would have been shock by the talents on display, also, you would have had a last long memory of how tremendously our sports have progressed. If you're too conversant on the outings of our various sporting team at the world stage, you would have asked yourself this simple but relevant question; how and why have we not been able to nurture all of these massive talents into something productive on the world stage?

Like so many people, I don't have definite answers and solutions to the poser I raised, but then, I have a few of solutions to the catastrophic outings we have been having over the years at the world stage. Think it over; just at the Tokyo Olympic 2020, a Nigerian shot putter was seen washing his jersey by himself after he advanced to a subsequent round. Come on! That was a man representing his country. He was mainly in Japan to fly the flag of his country high. As the parlance on the street goes "Nigeria will happen to anyone". Nigeria happened to him right there as it happens to some of us on a daily basis.

I was lucky to be around University of Ilorin, the venue which hosted the fifth edition of National Youth Games. The experiences there were so enormous. Like it has been happening since the invention of the event, Delta state remains the big winners. They have won each and every of the editions. Exactly as it's expected, they dominated this year's edition but not with some tough matches and events across various sports. For example, in Handball, team Delta male could only managed bronze after team Sokoto had claimed Gold against team Lagos in the final. While they went away with silver in the female's category.

This turn of events only tells us one thing and one thing alone; Amongst our youth, there are massive talents scattered across the country. Sadly, our Governments across board aren't giving the right atmosphere and platform for them to thrive. How much are the governments preparing these kids for future purpose? How much are the governments committing into grassroots sports in our country?

It's disappointing that in a country who have witnessed a whole lots of breakthrough in various type of sports aren't giving the needed attention to such sector. No wonder why athletes of Nigerian descents will try all within their capacity to represent another country. Now wonder our athletes will boycott sporting events.

Let me tell you, so many youths at the just concluded National youth games weren't taken care of. This isn't even an assertion. It's a conclusion I reached after I had spoken with so many of them while the events was going on. Imagine a 15years old athlete who isn't well fed, what type of mentality are we building in such kid? How do you expect him to be at his beat against an opponent who is well motivated?

Regrettably, this is the situation we currently are. And until the people at the helms of affairs learn how to prioritize athlete's welfares, I'm afraid we'll continue to see our athletes turn up for other countries, and that I think we'll not be able to call unpatriotism.

For a better position in sports and all other sectors, it's only right for us to invest, motivate and encourage the people involved.