Editorial
Somalilandsun – With hundreds of NGOs purporting to address youth issues and almost a dozen more associations assumed to be charged with sporting issues, still, it is quite by large that the national youth and sporting issues has a long way to go.
The policy papers that ought to streamline this area are supposedly in place. Letting aside the budgetary and logistics allocations be, the main bone of contention lies with the strategy itself.
What we have in mind is that just as security, health and education are prioritized the youth and sporting issues should also rank top most of the agendas.
It is a fact that the education, health and security issues herein discussed are of course those of the majority in the populace; the youth.
The intertwining and interweaving of departmental roles are so much, such that opportunity costs are not visualized, hence prioritizing youth issues shouldn’t is apparently jeopardized.
Educational policies have left out sporting as a major health, security and youth factor.
So, too, have security issues over looked sporting as an important element in combating crime brought about by rampant idleness.
To make the matters worse, the health sector policy do not see sporting as a priority to be blended into its strategies of/for boosting health.
The irony herein above, unmistakably, is that neither the policies tailored for youth nor youth issues are coordinated well in tandem by line departments or ministries or between themselves for a comprehensive national strategy.
If such could happen, then we would have seen things planned for the youth in a larger picture.
For instance the ministry of education would have insisted on each school to have a playground for either indoor or outdoor sports; or physical education should/ would have been co-opted in the schools’ daily subjected time tables.
On the other hand, public works ministry and local authority councils would have earmarked or built sporting facilities in an even manner across the towns and regions etc.
Given the past games that have taken place, it is high time that we should put in place a priority one call on sporting issues hence reflect back on our socio-cultural perspective.
Regular sporting tourneys and variety of games would have achieved several things at a go; skills would have shaped for the better, regular interactions would cement societal brotherhood hence result in more stability as far as security is concerned, hence better still, health and associated factors would thrive.
In a nutshell, that is how the rest of the human race the world over operates.
If we don’t, then come next year the youth would still be more polarized on tribal grounds, their shapes and skills would nose-dive and their physical or mental health, morale etc would dampen, if not worsen.
The writer M.A.Egge is the editor of The Horn Tribune a weekly English weekly published in Hargeisa by the state owned Dawan Media Group
