UNIUYO to monetise sports with new policy — VC

Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. Christopher Ekong

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. Christopher Ekong, has said the university will soon unveil a comprehensive sports policy that will make sports sustainable, profitable and balanced with academics.

Ekong stated this on Thursday during a press briefing in Uyo while responding to questions on sports development in the institution.

He said his administration did not want to intervene in sports superficially but to institutionalise it as a deliberate policy that would benefit both students and the university.

He said, “I took the first set of appointment to go to the United States to play football. I don’t want to just intervene in sports. I want to make money from sports. I want to make sports as a policy in the university.”

Ekong said sports in the university must be sustainable and must allow student-athletes to combine education and sports effectively.

“If I support and sponsor two or three footballers or athletes to America without a policy, this university will not have money. So why do I want to just move into something that is not going to be sustainable? What is going to make this child to do sports and also go to school and be happy and balance the two?” he explained.

The Vice Chancellor decried a situation where some lecturers misunderstand sports and promote academic laxity among athletes, noting that such an attitude could undermine the students.

“We have teachers who may not even understand sports and you go to students and warn them, that you are playing football instead of your studies and some say, don’t worry you will not pass. Once that happens, that child is finished,” he said.

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He said the new sports policy being worked on would ensure buy-in from all stakeholders, provide facilities that reinforce the dual importance of education and sports, and instil in athletes the mindset that they could progress to represent the country in international competitions.

“We want to have a policy that everybody buys into. They will have facilities that make the sports people to know that there are two things, education and sports. And then we also put in that psyche that you are not going to stop here. You are going to go higher to represent the country,” he added.

Ekong said the university did not have all the funds required to build the needed sports infrastructure and would collaborate with development agencies to achieve this.

He disclosed that the South-South Development Commission had visited the university two weeks ago and provided a template for intervention.

“We are going to collaborate, look for people who are going to come and assist us to build those facilities. Maybe from NDDC, maybe the South-South Development Commission. I brought South-South Development Commission here and they were here two weeks ago and they sent a template on how they are going to support us,” he said.

He assured that when the sports policy was unveiled, it would be comprehensive and commendable.

“We are working on that document. We need to finish before we start doing anything more. When we unveil our sports policy, even you will be happy,” the VC said.