ABSTRACT
Consistent recreational programme has been justified by scholars that it improves the morale and fitness of workers. Recreation therefore, increases the efficiency of workers. This is the reason why many developed nations have set aside specific periods in between working hours for compulsory recreation for workers. How well this is being undertaken in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and what nature of constraints could affect recreational activities of Staffs is what this research is concern with. The studyexamined recreational activity participatory constraints among academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University;identified its patterns and preferences and provided explanations as well as suggestions on ways to enhance recreational activities in the university. The Ex-post facto research design was used in the study on a population sample size of 150 respondents from the total population out of 1535 academic staff in both Kongo and Main Campuses. The administration of the questionnaire which was the instrument for data collection was done in a simple random way. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. From the results of data analysed and interpreted it was found that that the low rate of staffs? participationin recreational activities could be traced to certain factors liked distance of facilities (37.7%), nature of work and work time in the office (37.7% and 30.2%) as well as psychological and physiological shown in Table 4.9. Furthermore, it was found that, non-participation in recreational activities by academic staff of the university was due to lack of the awareness of the importance of the recreational activities to the contribution of good health life living of the staff as well as the inability of the University authority in creating a recreational week quarterly to address this. Based on this findings, it was recommended that, enlightenment campaign should be carried out vigorously through the use of ABU Samaru FM and Special official bulletins to educate the staff on the important of recreational activities. The university authority can also go a step further by institutionalizing a recreational week quarterly in order to increase the participation of staff in recreational activities as well as provided ease of access and transportation services to the facilities to address the complaints about the distance to such facilities.