Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has pledged to hold the nation’s best National Sports Festival.
Abiodun announced this at the State 5-Aside Street Soccer Tournament final in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The Governor’s Special Assistant on Youth and Sports, Olamide Lawal, remarked that the state government’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Sports shows its seriousness in hosting NSF.
He said the right stakeholders were involved in all planning.
The Governor said, “The government is also putting its mind into sports development now, and that is one of the reasons why the Governor effortlessly bided to hosting the National Sports Festival and to the glory of God, we have won it, we have signed MoU and the Governor has assured that Ogun State is going to give the best of National festival in the history of Nigeria.
“The Governor knows how to host the best National Festival and keeps his word. The Governor promised the best National Sports Festival, and the bidding kickstarts State sports.
“Look at the covering of the M.K. O Abiola stadium seats, they thought it would not be possible but within a short period, the stadium was covered”.
He continued, “Everything planned is on the ground, the consultant is working, and numerous firms have been hired. Once the Governor takes office, the action will continue.
He stated, “This tournament has met his major purpose, objective in the sense that we are gathering young people from the streets, most of them that don’t have a club but have the talent in them and assist them to display it to the world.
“We engaged them in this event to deter social vices. This contest empowered them. We devised events for them to improve sports in Ogun State”.
Abiodun, who promised to sustain the tournament, asked for more public-private collaborations in the state’s sports sector, saying government alone cannot grow sports.
“In our bid to assure the sustainability of this concept, we are doing it in line with the Governor’s objective to ensure Public Private Partnership,” he said.
As you can see, we’re doing this competition with iHouse Limited. More will come after this initial edition.
He said, “All 20 local governments were represented, they played within their local governments, and each regional government champion emerged, and you can see the team numbers down here in Abeokuta. Since the government cannot create sports, we now have something to present to the private sector. We’ll involve business and attract the commercial industry to sports for Corporate Social Responsibility.
The government cares about Gateway Football Club, which fights relegation in the National League.
Allen Taylor, a State sports stakeholder, praised the football competition organisers, adding, “We need more of this in the State.” This is fantastic because there are numerous skills.
