Friday June 16, 2026
www.thenewsdesk.ng
The Honourable Commissioner for Sports, Elder Paul Bassey has sued for a routine involvement of sports activities in the itineraries of government establishments.
Elder Bassey made the advocacy on Thursday, June 25 ,while delivering a lecture to the Association of Heads of Federal Establishments (AHFE),Akwa Ibom State,as part of the core of activities marking the 2026 Federal Civil Service Week with the theme: ” *Transforming* *Public ** *Institutions,** *Advancing Innovation,* *Participation,and* *Inclusion”.*
Giving the lecture at the Federal Secretariat conference room,under the title _”Sports as a_ _Tool for Productivity_ _and Staff Wellness_”, the sports boss pointed out that when adopted as a regular keep fit tool, Sports can serve as a catalyst for health, discipline, and enhanced workplace performance in a given work environment.
According to Elder Bassey,in addition to boosting team spirit amongst staffers in an organization, sports driven wellness can birth initiatives that foster vitality, productivity and organizational effectiveness.
” Wellness and adaptability to the workplace environment as oftentimes recommended for institutions and organizations,can easily be achieved through regular and sustained engagement in sports activities by staff. It has been generally proven by researchers and sports medicine practitioners that sports, in its overall concept promotes health,high morale,and peak performance in the work environment
” A healthy work environment is expected to be collaborative, supportive,and productivity oriented; enabling employees to achieve both personal and organizational goals. These possibilities are hinged on a vibrant employee’s personal health, whose constant wellness and physical state of fitness ability will lead to high and improved performances, thus posting better results to any organization or work environment such as we presently are”.
Expounding on the complexity of the modern workplace with characteristics that culminate in working under tight deadlines, sedentary lifestyles, hitech dependency etc, which pose health challenges,the commissioner advised that sports should be looked beyond its traditional recreational/ competitive view to a health necessity.
He cited a scientific finding where the human system is said to support the release of positive hormones via sporting activities.
According to the sports helmsman, endorphins, dopamine (chemical messenger that works in the brain,) and serotonin,(a substance that causes blood vessels to narrow ) are stimulated when people engage in sporting activities,thus improving memory level, attention, learning abilities that give rise to quick decision making.
As a church elder, the commissioner from the outset,however, came up with what appeared to be the ecclesiastical side of the delivery,when he cited bible portions that embody sports terms including Isaiah 40:31;2 Timothy 4:7 and 1 Corinthians 9: 24-25; which further portray the timeless importance of sports.
The lecture which is a component of a week long event of the 2026 Federal Civil Service Week that started on the 20th and will end 28th June, culminated in the unveiling of the AHFE sports jersey, with the commissioner flanked by the association’s chairman,Dcns Uduak Essien, a senior director in the Federal Civil Service.