It will be a gathering of who is who in the darts fraternity as well as the sports family when stakeholders converge on Ikeja Club on Obafemi Awolowo way Ikeja,Lagos for the first darts stakeholders summit on March 4,2017.
The list of keynote speakers unveiled by the organisers after a meeting in Lagos is a pointer to a business like event that seek to chart the way forward for a money spinning sport in other clime.
Among those expected to be delivering keynote speeches on that day are Prof Oladele Kale,the pioneer Technical Director of the defunct All Nigeria Darts Federation (ANDF),who is also known as Mr Darts,he will also be doubling as the Chairman of the summit and he will be supported by a versatile and reputable sports administrator Prof Olatunde Makanju who is currently the Chairman,Lagos State Athletics Association.
Another cerebral sports administrator Rev Patrick Egbele will be delivering a paper on “The administration of sports by the Federal and State organs,the benefits and hindrances of such organs to emerging sports in Nigeria”.
Other speakers are Mr Joachim Idada,a sports marketing consultant and Unicorn Darts Representative in Nigeria who will be speaking on “Modern evolving trends of effecting new sports growth with darts as a case study” while veteran sports journalist and editor,Sporting Sun John Joshua Akanji will deliver a paper on”The media as a principal partner in creating greater interest for darts sport acceptance”.
The Technical Director of the Darts Federation of Nigeria Ayo Odidi will also be telling the forum what the government is doing to grow and sustain the sport.
A communique based on the participants’ consensus for darts growth is expected at the summit as the communique is expected to be a workable document that will offer a road map to develop the darts sport in Nigeria.
“We must reposition the darts sport in Nigeria because our global ranking is nothing to write home about,even in Africa, countries like South Africa that came into the game after Nigeria has players on the world ranking”Akin Omotoso former Chairman Lagos State Darts Association lamented.
