Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi Constituency in the Bono region, Alhaji Seidu Haruna, has advised the youth in his constituency to reawaken their interest and commitment towards sporting activities, especially football.

According to him, sporting activities are beneficial to one's mental acuity; enhancing the critical thinking ability of individuals who engage in it, hence the need for the youth to take it seriously.

“Studies have shown that being physically active through football lowers body fat, strengthens muscles and increases the likelihood of continuing good health habits later in life and the players also tend to have higher levels of self-esteem as well as lower levels of depression,” the Wenchi MP observed.

Alhaji Haruna made the call at the Bono regional town of Wenchi, where he organized a football tournament for about 20 football clubs in the area to rekindle the youth’s love for football.

He reiterated that football is not only a game or a profession for many of the talented youth but also promotes peace and unity in communities.

He added that "as much as football promotes peace and unity amongst people and further allows development, let me say that I can see the future of most of our talented youth here”.

Alhaji Haruna said the tournament will help identify individual talents who will replace great footballers like former Black Stars Captain, Asamoah Gyan in the coming years.

He, therefore, urged the youth to eschew negative political rivalry in order to pave way for accelerated development within the constituency, saying “the elections are over and what is left is to bring heads together in a peaceful atmosphere to ensure total development”.

“I beg of you to bury your political differences, put ideas together and support me to bring development into our treasured constituency,” Alhaji Haruna stressed,

The Wenchi MP pledged to support the Wenchi Municipal Assembly to speedily complete the ongoing construction of the Wenchi sports stadium in order to boost sporting activities in the area.

“Wenchi is noted for producing top-class soccer heroes, so it is just not practical to get the best out of the current pool of talented youth without a standard stadium.

"That is why I will want to assist the municipal assembly to quickly get the new stadium ready for use, so that we can continue producing stars for the nation,” he said.

He, therefore, appealed to natives of Wenchi who are in other parts of Ghana and those abroad to help build a better Wenchi.