Every adult, from 18 to about 55 year of age,
deserve to work and to make a living. But right now, over 80 million able
bodied persons in Nigeria are without job. About 10 million of them training to
become professional footballers couldn’t find any club to employ their services
as well.
It’s very pathetic to see most of these young adults
going on for several days without food. Many of them were forced by poverty to
abandon their God given talent, to become fraudsters, gangsters, Militants or
terrorists… when young adults cannot find legitimate job to do, they get into
crime – and who can blame them for that?
Their parents may be unemployed too and their
families too poor, so they have to find a way to fend for themselves.
Peer group pressure is another factor that has taken
its own toll. Fellow youngsters, who had gone into cyber crime popularly known
as yahoo –yahoo, are now living in exaggerated luxuries; which seem to suggest
crime as the way to go.
It’s difficult to find role models now-a-days; not
even among the few footballers who made it abroad. With a footballer’s career
rarely lasting more than 15 years span, it’s always regrettable to find
emerging football stars going into the same vices: gambling, alcohol, drugs,
illicit sex and not able to cultivate a positive image worthy of emulation.
This may be one of the reasons we find
ex-footballers in Nigeria, return back to abject poverty after years of
reckless living. You can’t really blame them. There was nobody to guide and
direct them on what to do; nobody to help them manage their career.
You may not understand how these things happen, but
many of these footballers may have come from difficult backgrounds or quit the
education system early, leaving them with few of the life skills required to deal
with the unbelievable amount of money thrown at them at a very youthful age.
These are some of the challenges we are determined
to fix through ‘Inspire Football Life’ (IFL Network) programs. For instance,
each year we gather over 200 young footballers in a trial camp; where they are
trained, inspired and given counsel ahead of their anticipated footballer career.
It’s a kind of mentorship program for footballers. We also invite scouts as
well as agents and turn the trial camp into another opportunity to discover
great players.
IFL Network isn’t all about footballers alone. We
are reaching out to more fans and other interest groups as well, delivering to them
tools and products that enrich them greatly; exposing to them how they can make
money and always take their passion to the bank.
You can get regular inspirations on our blog posts
and newsletters. We publish “how to” and “step by step guide” that brings
solution to you at your finger tips.
We have strong presence in the social media
networks. We are enlarging our community base on Facebook, Google+, Twitter,
WhatsApp…. The reason we created these
communities is to reach more people, so we can inspire them with football possibilities
and let them have access to opportunities. You can connect with real people who
can help you live your dreams. Join us now on:
If you are on WhatsApp, SMS us your phone number to +234 809 877 2556, then we will add you to our community
