In the last few years, Lagos State Government, under Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola and Commissioner for Sports, Waheed Enitan Oshodi, have delivered and executed a well-rehearsed plan of action for sports. In this special package, Weekend SportsDay Correspondent, REMI SULOLA takes a look at some key policy makers of sports in Lagos State, amidst a promise by Governor Fashola that the plan will far outlive his present administration. ………………………………… Fashola Reveals Top Secrets -Unfolds Blueprint Of Lagos State Sports Development The Office of Sports in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development(MYSSD) with the assistance of the administration of His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN had recorded a lot of sporting achievements which pointed to the fact that the rise from the 9th position of the 17th National Sports Festival (NSF) to the 3rd position in the last 18th National Sports Festival was not a fluke. This meteoric rise, according to close sources, is rooted in equity, fairness and justice devoid of cheating or employing the services of mercenaries. According Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN on the secrets of success of the National Sports Festival: “in terms of socio economic importance, you can’t divorce our perspective of the hosting from the origin of the game. Some of the myths about certain areas are broken when we travel there. When I was a kid, some of the things I heard about the eastern part of the country exploded when I eventually went there as a young man. The essence of the festival created in a post war Nigeria is basically to build the unity of the country and to make friends”. The Governor also said that, “the festival is an avenue for the human capital development. It is not an Olympic and nobody should compare the performance of the game with even the Commonwealth Games standard in terms of organization and quality of competition. My own understanding is that it is an avenue to discover talents that we can groom to represent this country in the All African Games, Commonwealth Games and even the Olympic”. On security, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN said, “we had our first security meeting way back in March 2012. From there we produced our GIS maps of all the locations; the venues, the hotels, roads etc. all the security personnel had these maps of all the locations where athletes and officials were going to be during the festival. We were having monthly meeting to review every detail”. As regards nurturing of talents discovered at the festival, Babatunde Raji Fashola said that, “we are running a lot of grassroots games from the MTN Street Soccer, the Beach Soccer to the Principal’s Cup and the tertiary institutions games. We still have not taken the advantage of our diversity as a nation. It is just for the National Sports Commission to go round to say they want these and that and they are there for the picking. Take for instance a 15 year old boy doing 10.80 seconds in the 100metres race now”. New festival records were created in various sports especially in swimming where ten records were set by young athletes who we hope would replace the ageing athletes in swimming thereby returning Nigeria to its former pride of place in international swimming competitions. The festival was given international flavor with live streaming of the events and games via the internet with various events going on simultaneously given the multiplicity of availability of sporting venues for the festival which made this possible. The festival has come and gone but its reverberations still remain till date. The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development (MYSSD), Office of Sports along with MTN in fulfilling their promise to the winners of the Season 5, MTN Lagos Street Soccer Championship winners of an all expense paid foreign training tour have sponsored the third placed winners to a playing tour of Ghana, the second placed to South Africa and the third placed to Dubai. Football scouts have shown interest in some of the players while discussion on this is on-going. Also the maiden edition of the inter-school table tennis championship in Lagos sponsored by a former international took place from January 21st to January 27th, 2013 featuring boys and girls under the ages of 17 years. It was a highly successful competition. Other competitions by the sports associations are also being organized for future dates, all the above courtesy of His Excellency, with the following achievements already wrapped up: 1. The Ministry organized the Lagos State Sports Festival tagged “IBILE Games”. The Games kicked off on 14th May, 2012 and ended two weeks after, over 120 Senior Secondary Schools in Lagos and all the 57 Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas participated. 2. The Adopt-A-Talent Programme organized a One-Day seminar for Coaches and Athletes under its stable also in May 2012. 201 athletes have so far joined the programme. 3. The Ministry organized the Lagos State Grassroots Squash Championship which final took place on 16th May 2012. 4. The Lagos State Chess Association organized “Training with the Masters Chess Series in the month of May. 15 males and females participated. 5. The Lagos State Table Tennis League organized by the Ministry took place between 10th May to 12th July, 2012 at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Complex, Rowe Park, Yaba. 6. The 5th Season of MTN/Lagos Street Soccer Championship organized by the Ministry kicked off on 5th July, 2012 and would run through to September 2012. 902 teams registered for the competition with female and corporate categories introduced into the Season 5 Championship. 7. Lagos State the “Centre of Excellence” would be hosting the 18th National Sports Festival this year, the Festival being organized by the State promises to set a global standard for other National Sports Festivals that would follow suit. The State had a grand Logo, Website and Mascot launch and unveiling on 28th June, 2012. 8. The State of Aquatic splendor also backed the International Olympic Committee 2012 Olympic Day Run in Lagos. 9. The State Governor, His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN donated a newly purchased trophy to the NFF for the Federation Cup Championship on 16th July, 2012 in order to bring back the tradition of Federation Cup glory to the championship. SCORECARD OF EXCELLENCE * In-House Table Tennis Tournament in honour of the newly elected President of the Table Tennis Federation Honourable Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social development in Lagos State, Mr. Wahid Enitan Oshodi in June 2013. • Eko International Taekwondo championship in June 2013. • GTBank/Lagos State Principals’ Cup with the final played on 13th July, 2013. (313 schools participated). • 57 Sports Officers of the LGs/LCDAs were given working equipment of digital Cameras on 4th July, 2013. • 2013 Lagos Oba Cup (Football) in which 160 teams participated. • Supported the Nigeria Olympic Committee Olympic Day Run on 6th July, 2013 through MYSSD roles. • 36 Sports Associations Quarterly Inter-Club competitions commenced in earnest from the month of July, 2013 and it is on-going. • Maiden Town Hall meeting on Sports Development, this was facilitated by Lagos State Sports Endowment Fund on 16th July, 2013. • 2nd Quarter Lagos State Handball Inter-Club competition on 14th August, 2013. • 2nd Quarterly Table Tennis competition on 10th August, 2013. • Season 6 of the MTN/Lagos Street Soccer Championship kicked-off on 16th August, 2013. An Under 15 category was newly introduced with about 10,000 students participating. 800 teams were registered for the championship. • Lagos State Under-18 Inter-Club Karate competition took place on 17th August. 15 clubs participated. • Lagos State Badminton Association 2nd Quarterly Inter-Club Championship took plca from 15th to 16th August. 70 players participated. • 2nd Quarter Volleyball competition in August, 2013. • 2nd Quarterly Rowing competition at Majidun Waterfront, Ikorodu from 28th to 29th August. • Sponsored 54 newly employed coaches to a 3-day workshop for long term athlete development model organised by University of Ibadan in August, 2013. • Maiden Lagos International Table Tennis Classics took place from 26th to 31st August. Over 6 countries participated. The competition has also enjoyed the International Table Tennis Federation world ranking status. • 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) tagged “EKO 2012 Games” in December 2012 is best described as a promise grandly fulfilled by His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN to host the best ever NSF and which would be a reference point for past and future NSF.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:36:20 +0000
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