Sports
Edo 2020: ‘No New Date For NSF, Yet’
The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has said that a new date for the 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) will be announced based on developments around the COVID-19.
Dare had earlier announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed the postponement of the 20th NSF, originally billed to start in Benin City,Edo State this weekend as part of deliberate efforts to check the possible spread of coronavirus in the country.
While speaking later with newsmen after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari, Dare gave no indication of when the Festival would now precisely hold.
“A new date for the festival will be announced based on development around COVID-19,’’ the minister, who spoke in the company of the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, said.
He pointed out that the decision to postpone the event followed a meeting of stakeholders, who advised President Buhari appropriately.
Speaking also, Mamora said the postponement was in the overall interest of Nigerians and national health security.
“It is better to err on the side of caution. Therefore, we conveyed to Mr President our thought and Mr President thereafter kindly agreed that it was best for us to have this postponement.
“One of the things that we need to give attention to is the possibility of people carrying the virus even without knowing —- what we call A-Symptomatic. That is, they carry it but they don’t even know because they are not manifesting symptoms.
“And what we need so far is that up to 80 to 81 percent of people would either be A-Symptomatic. That is, not showing any symptoms or, where they show symptoms, the symptoms may just be mild and moderate.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.