The possibility of staging
the 24th Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Games will be based on ending the three-month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) within the next one week.
NUGA council member, Cecilia Arinye disclosed this to newsmen last Thursday on telephone, after the end of a one-day council meeting held at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.
The games had originally been scheduled to hold between October 3 and October 13 at the OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Arinye, who is also the NUGA Zone F Co-coordinator, comprising the universities in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States, said that the one-day meeting was to determine the possibility of the Games vis-à-vis the ongoing ASUU strike.
The co-coordinator, who is also the Director of Sports at the University of Lagos, said that the council expressed hopelessness at the situation, noting that the meeting only considered the best options.
“The possibility of staging the event will be based on a possible end to the three-month old ASUU strike within the next one week.
“The meeting’s deliberations have been subjected to permutations and despondency, considering the available time and the ongoing industrial face-off between university teachers and the Federal Government,” Arinye said.
According to Arinye, the host university is ready for the games, having put in place structures and sporting facilities for the event.
“Athletes who are the actors in the competition are at home, they are not on campus and so, it’s impossible to stage the event without them,” she said.
Arinye urged the government to save the sporting careers of the student athletes, whom she said, had hoped to use the competition to advance their prospects in life by resolving the impasse.
“Any possible shift in date now will further dampen the athletes’ spirit,’’ she added.
The Tidesport reports that the 2013 biennial Games had earlier suffered a postponement in June.