Last month a committee referred to as the Bakau Advisory and Development Committee was set up under the aegis of the alkalo of Bakau Dodou Bojang. This committee includes prominent members of the community as well as local political leaders such as the councilors of the wards of Bakau, Mr Abdoulie Jallow, Alhagie Bahoum and nominated councillor Aja Fatou Nyang-Mballow. Other members include the alkalo, Mr Pa Suwareh Faye, Mr Ebou Secka, Hada Bangura, Abdoulie Bojang, Bakary ‘Paco’ Dampha.
The cardinal objective of this committee is to arrest the dearth and decay that blights the management of sports and sports infrastructure in the community. This undesirable condition has assumed an ugly manifestation in the poor and shameful performance of the super nawettan team at the last super nawettaan and subsequently in the relegation of the local teams Steve Biko FC from the first division and Sait Matty FC from the second division.
Addressing this problem, it is believed, could be achieved not by usurping the powers of the Bakau Zone Sports Committee as understood in some quarters, but rather by working hand-in-glove with them and ensuring that those areas of manifested weakness, like financial management, attraction of sponsorships for nawettaan and other sports competition, and perhaps most importantly the rehabilitation and development of the Bakau Mini-Stadium are given the compelling attention they deserve and addressed effectively in the shortest possible time.
It could be recalled that for the past decade the management of sports and sports infrastructure have experienced a steady decline, which has left the mini stadium of Bakau known as ‘Park’ in a very depressing and deplorable condition. In addition, the committees mandated for the maintenance of sports in the past few years have been found in one way or the other inadequate in terms of competence, creativity, will-power to address the prevalent problems in a decisive and sustainable manner.
Immediately after coming to power, the current alkalo invested every ounce of his energy to address the problems leading to deterioration of the standard of sports and its related infrastructure in Bakau. It is in line with this that this committee has been formed to work with the Bakau zone sports committee to bring back the glory days of sports in Bakau. As a relatively young person and former footballer on the same pitch and in the same sport, the alkalo is fully aware of the potential of sports in uniting a community and focusing the enormous energy of youths in more positive and gainful endeavours especially at a time when the ‘back way’ phenomenon has become more inimical to the progressive development of our youthful population.
The committee has started work in earnest and so far had had a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Sports with a view to attract support and funding for the development of the infrastructure at the Bakau Mini-Stadium. The result of this meeting is promising. Meetings with other stakeholders are in the pipeline. We will need to show unity and fierce loyalty to the interest of our community to bring the desired aims into fruition. However, the committees and the community of Bakau will need to do more than just soliciting funds for development. To set the records straight, contrary to news reports that the committee has some funds quoted at around D600,000 there is absolutely no fund for the committee at the moment. All what we have are desires and plans to work on to gather the much-needed funds as well as putting in place a robust administrative structure that will ensure competence, transparency and sustainability in the management of our sports and sports infrastructure.
Furthermore it must be understood that this committee is neither a replacement of the Bakau Zone Sports Committee, nor does it have any intention of replacing it. All it seeks to achieve is to arrest the degeneration of sports management and infrastructure in Bakau to bring back the golden days. We hope we have the fullest support of every bona fide citizen of Bakau in ensuring the fullest achievement of the objectives the committee has set for it.
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