As the 17th  National Sports Festival “Garden City Games”  gets underway, the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Rivers State chapter, has commended the Rivers State Government for hosting the sports festival.

NULGE believes that the 17th National Sports Festival will bring a lot of incentives to the state and help to shore-up the state’s image, erasing whatever misconception that participants at the games might have heard about the state, and Port Harcourt, the state capital in particular.

Speaking in an interview on the Sports Festival yesterday in Port Harcourt, NULGE state President, Barr. Franklyn Ajinwo said Governor Rotimi Amaechi deserves commendation for accepting to host the games because of what is involved, noting that it is not an easy task but could only take a man with a large heart.

Ajinwo said, he believed that at the end of the 14-day games, Rivers State would  not remain the same, as the games would surely boost the state’s economy and usher in development, and influx of more people into the state.

His words: “Hosting the 17th National Sports Festival is a good thing; it’s a good thing because sports is a unifying factor; it’s recreational, it unites various groups, you have people from various parts of the country coming together for the purpose of sports.  You see that by the time they leave here, somebody from the North will be able to make one friend from the West or South or East”.

“The fact that this Sports Festival is holding here in Port Harcourt goes to confirm that Port Harcourt is safe for all kinds of activities and it goes to show-case some of the things we have here in Port Harcourt so that while people leave after the festival, they should have been able to know one or two things which they can tap from”, he said.

The NULGE boss said that apart from visiting the state for sports, the august visitors could come back for other things like tourism and personal business in the state, and by so doing boosting economic activities further in the state.

He noted that while the festival lasts, there will be a lot of buying and selling, patronage of hotels and other advantages associated with the festival.

Ajinwo emphasized that “some misconceptions people, before now, have about the state, by the time they come and go back, will be corrected.   They’ll see Rivers State as a better place than, may be, what they thought of before now”.

Justifying his commendation of the Rivers State government’s hosting of the event and why all well-meaning people should dof their hat for the government, Ajinwo said, “ofcourse yes, we should commend Governor Amaechi because if you look at what is involved, hosting the entire nation, somebody, who does not really have a larger heart, a lion heart will shy away from it.

“He will be intimidated when he looks at what is involved so the fact that he was able to brace-up accept it and say “I will do it”, “we need to commend him because things that add to the personality of a nation, of a state, of a person are things like this”, he said.   He noted that “by the time we do it and do it very well like we are already doing,  I think people will have a better impression about Rivers State as they go back to their homes”.