Solving The 19th National Sports Festival Impasse

Athletes in Nigeria always look forward to the country’s own version of the Olympic Games (National Sports Festival) but that dream seem defeated following the continuous postponement of the games by hosts, Cross River State and apparent inability to host the games.
The Sports Festival was last held in Lagos state in 2012 and five years after, nothing has been heard about the 19th edition of the games tagged Centenary Games, which ordinarily ought to have taken place before the birth of the present administration in Cross River State.
Like the saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, in sports it is training without competition that makes a potential champion a novice, so one can now understand why Nigeria’s score card on the continent has taken a nosedive in recent times.
The facilities on ground show that Cross River State government’s support and enthusiasm to the games have petered out and rather than subject the athletes to unecessary wear and tear, some sports journalists say the ideal thing for the National Sports Commission to do, is to take the games to Abuja or appeal to states that can bail Cross River State out.
A Rivers State based sports journalist, Benson Clement, even narrowed the likely states that can host the games to the last two hosts of the national sports festival apart from the federal capital territory.
“Now that it is obvious Cross River State Government is not ready for the games, the National Sports Commission/Sports Ministry should take it up or make it open for states that have the potential to host ’’.Clement said.
“The commencement of the 19th edition of the National Sports Festival has lingered for long, nothing has happened, I think the National Sports Commission,NSC should just seek audience with Lagos and Rivers States, the hosts of the 17th and 18th edition of the games”.
“Even though the pitch at the main bowl of the national stadium may not be in good shape for the opening and closing ceremony for now”, said a former secretary of the Rivers State Chapter of Sports Writer Association of Nigeria, Olalekan Ige, “Abuja should host because it is the most neutral of all the potential hosts in the country.
”They should take the games to Abuja which is a neutral ground ,though the main bowl is not in good shape for the opening and closing ceremony, I think with the other facilities on ground, Abuja will be a great host”, Ige said.
According to another Port Harcourt Sports journalist, Sarah David, athletes are at the receiving end of the several postponements the games have suffered which has in turn affected the quality of athletes invited to camp for international engagements.
And to ensure that the National Sports Festival holds in no distant time, David is also calling on the National Sports Commission to do whatever that it needs to do so as to get the games back on track.
“You know most sports select or use the national sports festival as the platform to invite athletes to national camp but that has not
happened in five years that is why our performance in international meet took a nosedive “. Sarah added            Meanwhile, former Rivers State Sports Commissioner, ,Boma Iyaye has not, “it is sad that five years after the last festival was held in Lagos, the chances of the 19th edition taking place soon is still very slim”.
He wondered why the National Sports Commission has not called on states with the ability to host to bail out Cross River State.
“It’s sad that five years down the line nothing has happened, I actually do not know what their(Cross River State) constrain is”.
“By now the NSC should have called on states with the wherewithal to help host the games, instead of denying the athletes the right to
competition,” Iyaye said
Iyaye however stressed that if the Main Organising Committee of the games approaches the Rivers State Government, to lend a helping hand, the 19th National Sports Festival might come to town after the necessary documentation must have been sorted out.
Abaje is a Port Harcourt-based sports journalist.

Peter Abaje