National Sports Festival makes a comeback after 6 years hiatus
Nigeria’s own ‘Olympic’ games, the National Sports Festival is finally back on track after it veered off the radar since 2012. The biennial sporting event which was last hosted six years ago in Lagos was commissioned in 1970 after the Nigeria civil war to promote unity and youth development.
It was also created as a means to discover new talents to represent Nigeria in International events. But when it was no longer hosted, many people assumed that as Nigeria fell into bad times economically, it became difficult to organize the competition.
Recently, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung made concerted efforts to revive the Sports Festival and the bid is finally paying off.
The National Sports Festival is currently being held in Abuja from December 6th to 16th 2018. Although there was lack of excitement surrounding the announcement for the event, it’s been disclosed that about 7,227 athletes will be competing in the tournament.
A twist of event has reversed the usual tradition of featuring representatives from all 36 states of the federation. Only athletes from 15 states were reported to be in camp as at the opening ceremony on Thursday.
The athletes are expected to take on the task of proving themselves as they battle for glory at the National Stadium, Abuja, where the festival is being hosted.
