By Kayode Akinmade
On Friday, the 22nd edition of Nigeria’s premier sports tournament, the National Sports Festival (NSF), kicks off in Ogun State amid song and drum, and the spectre of a wide audience.
Given the massive preparations, the state-of-the-art sporting infrastructure and the reinvention of historical monuments to give visitors to the state a great feel of its culture and traditions, and more importantly the avowed determination of the Dapo Abiodun administration to give Nigeria and indeed all of Africa a festival like no other.
The stage is set and the performers are fully ready to thrill the audience like they (the audience) have never been treated. Ogun raw sporting talents, from athletics to boxing, and from volleyball to football, among others, are set to slug it out with talents from around the country, showing the rhythms of Nigeria’s sporting endowments, its rich culture, its incredibly diverse population, and its future.
Ogun 2025 is bound to be arguably the best sporting event in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent times. The opening ceremony will be spectacular, comparable to what you find at the Olympics or FIFA -organised tournaments, and full of drama, colour, and excitement.
The Gateway State is hosting over 12000 athletes, and the accommodation arrangements are superb. And from its fabrics to its monuments and, of course, its unbeatable cuisine, visitors are going to have the best of Ogun State from May 16 to 30, marking the second time the state has staged the multi-sports fiesta after hosting the 2006 edition. No doubt, many great talents will emerge from the festival, joining the great names of previous tournaments. In the years gone by, many great Athletes rose from the NSF to global stardom.
Fittingly, the Ogun State Government is treating the games as the key to a revolution. As Governor Dapo Abiodun has been keen to stress, the 22nd NSF will be more than just a sporting event; it will be a catalyst for establishing a vibrant sports economy in the state; a deliberate effort by his administration to build a robust sports economy, particularly through the upgrading of several sports facilities across the state.
“The Governor articulates the objectives of the festival so well, and deserves accolades for the depth of his vision. Hear him: “As a visionary government, we are always intentional about our actions. We have been working hard to ensure that the state continues to improve its infrastructure.
The founding fathers of the NSF intended to unite the country through the event, and we have embraced this vision, intending to ensure we benefit immensely from hosting the NSF. We have already started seeing these benefits even before the games have begun.
Beyond infrastructure, we aim to use the NSF to boost our GDP by creating a sports economy around the facilities. We intend to make these facilities tourist attractions.”
Further articulating the goals of Ogun NSF, the Governor said: “What the sport festival stands for ties into our vision and we thought we should make a bid for it and we put our best foot forward.
After the Delta sports festival, we were accorded the right to host this sport festival, which is the 22nd National Sports Festival. It should have been the 26th but there were some years were it wasn’t held. Sport is intertwined with the history of Nigeria.
“What does the sport festival represent? To unite the country across state lines and to ensure that our youths develop talents, skills, leadership qualities and interpersonal skills because if you don’t do that there is a tendency for disunity. It will unite the country; nothing unites Nigeria more than a football match. Even when two brothers are fighting, when they are playing a soccer match everybody will hold hands and rejoice and then go back to their fight after that. This was what the vision of our forefathers was. They wanted us to be more disciplined, have leadership skills, and promote talents. We are keying into that. We hosted in 2006. I want to assure you that this year will be the benchmark for sports festivals.”