The just-concluded 2022 National Sports Festival (NSF) hosted by Delta State in Asaba provided another opportunity for sports talents to come to limelight.
According to Delta State Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, about 14,000 youths were gathered at the 2022 edition of the biennial festival to showcase their talents and compete for honours.
It is a fact that sporting events play a huge role in boosting economy, youth engagement and national integration.
Hosting NSF gives room for trade booms, increasing incomes for the formal and informal sectors.
This is not limited to sports economy, as hotels, restaurants and transporters also enjoy surge in patronage.
NSF was designed to meet athletes’ basic needs to come to limelight.
Sports enthusiasts and fans all over Nigeria held their breath throughout the 2022 NSF in expectation of having fond memories from the 38 sports on display.
The 10-day event created ambience of love, tolerance, endurance and healthy competition among youths, leaving memories of Nigerian sportsmen and women converging and competing fairly, with spectators’ cheers renting the air.
The just-concluded 2022 NSF provided a huge opportunity for Delta to showcase its love for sports as the Stephen Keshi Stadium, venue of the event, was filled with spectators.
It will be recalled that the first edition of NSF held in 1973 in Lagos, the then Nigeria’s capital, as a result of the country’s dire need for a platform for national re-integration after three years of civil war which ended in 1970.
Indeed, NSF, like the National Youth Service scheme, is one of the healing programmes for Nigeria introduced by the military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon to engender cohesion.
Without doubts, sports remains a veritable rallying point for unity among diverse socio-economic, religious and political groups in Nigeria.
It is not surprising that NSF was first called Unity Games.
The first edition was hosted at the iconic National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The historic event ushered in a time of renewal where, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, young men and women from various ethnic groups in the country converged for a single purpose after the civil war.
After the first edition won by Midwestern state, the Unity Games was renamed NSF.
Interestingly, the festival has grown in leaps and bounds, producing great athletes who have represented the nation at international sporting events.
Other states which have hosted NSF include Kaduna in 1977 and Bendel in 1976. Oyo State hosted the edition of the games tagged “Oluyole 1979’’ after which the games went back to Bendel in 1981, while Kwara played host to the festival in 1985.
Rivers got the right to host NSF in 1988, Lagos hosted again in 1989, while Bauchi State hosted the following edition of fiesta.
The ‘national Olympics’ was hosted by Benue in 1996 after which Imo played host to it in 1998, and Bauchi in 2000.
The mantle of host the festival fell on Edo in 2002 followed by Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, in 2004.
Two years later, in 2006, Ogun hosted the edition tagged Gateway Games.
NSF in 2009, with Kaduna State as the host, was nicknamed KADA Games, while in 2011, it was tagged Garden City Games when it was hosted in Port Harcourt by Rivers.
Lagos State hosted the games again in 2012, after which the fiesta was suspended for six years and returned in Abuja in 2018.
Edo hosted the 2020 edition in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which occurred a week to the commencement of the sports event.
The 2022 NSF came with milestones, one of which is that the host, Delta, won landslide by securing a total of 449 medals – 319 gold, 200 silver and 130 bronze.
Bayelsa came second with 130 gold, 114 silver and 89 bronze, having a total of 333 medals.
Team Edo secured the third place with 80 gold, 93 silver and 160 bronze, while Team Oyo secured 50 gold, 52 silver and 63 bronze to came fourth, and Team Lagos emerged fifth with 171 medals – 41 gold, 57 silver and 73 bronze.
It is remarkable that the number of medals won by Delta, which prides itself as the home of sports, is more than the total number of medals won by 17 states.
Seventeen of the states including those with large populations, secured only 223 medals while Team Delta got 449.
Also, Bayelsa with a population of about 2,394,725 (2020 statistics) emerged second ahead of a state such as Kano with a population estimate of 14,253,549 people.
This places a huge demand for more youth engagement in sports in states.
It is hoped that more engagement of the youth in sports will also reduce youth restiveness and crimes ranging from banditry to kidnapping and terrorism, among others.
It will also help to address out-of-school syndrome.
Part of the mandate of NSF is to positively engage in sports, youths who constitute a large percentage of Nigeria’s population.
Engaging the youth positively through sports will provide them opportunities of decent lives through sports earnings.
This will enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development.
Sports in today’s world is a big business as sportsmen are earning big money, signing endorsements with hefty packages.
Nigerian youths have the energy, enthusiasm and dynamism to ply their trades in sports.
Analysts urge stakeholders in education and sports development should do more to properly harness the strength of the youth, tutor them, develop their skills, uplift their spirits and believe in them.
While education remains a primary source to prosperity, sports can be considered as an oil that can grease wealth creation.
According to Delta Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, the state created a template for sports development aimed, among other things, to turn around the fortune of the youth.
He says Delta is using school sports, youth games and team sports, among other programmes, to develop sports talents.
The General Manager, Oyo State Sports Commission, Gboyega Makinde, describes the just-concluded NSF as successful, commending the organisers for a job well done.
“Oyo State can boast of good performances because of good preparations. Some other states can do same; it is not a rocket science.
“We need more grassroots development to source for athletes, we have the population and youths willing to compete, but they need exposure,” he says.
The Bayelsa Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Daniel Igali, is satisfied with officiating at the event.
“The officiating was excellent except for few hitches which were sorted out. Our athletes performed excellently,’’ he says.
He, however, is of the opinion that some accommodation facilities were below standards, urging improvement in next edition.
“I was not satisfied with the accommodation provided for my athletes. I needed to provide another one close to the games village.”
The Director of Communications, Access Bank Lagos Marathon, Kayode Thomas, is convinced that the sports festival lived up to expectations.
“I have listened to some complaints about the game, but they were not far from what can be experienced in major games across the world – accommodation, logistics and others,” he says.
Thomas advises states to avoid poaching athletes.
“They should develop their own athletes.
“The main purpose of the game is to develop talents residual in the state, from the grassroots, and not for states winning by all means through buying of some athletes to represent them.”
Adenike Oyekunle, Lagos-based athlete and gold medalist in vault apparatus in gymnastics event, describes the 2022 NSF as memorable.
“The last festival was a good one, I will always look back and be satisfied with my performance, I believe in my ability. The festival was a successful one for me.”
Analysts urge states of the federation to initiate more programmes aimed at developing sports talents, calling on states yet to host NSF to consider doing so as a strategy to engage more of their youths in sports.
As Nigerians look forward to the next edition of NSF to be hosted by Ogun, it is hoped that states which performed poorly at the 2022 edition will work harder to do well.
CREDITED: Lanre Akojede, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
