The 19th National Sports Festival (NSF) which took place in Abuja between December 6 and 16 was a major highlight of the year 2018. We believe the reason is obvious especially because the competition was a long awaited one.
We appreciate the return of the fiesta which took place in Abuja six years after the previous edition staged in 2012 in Lagos. Many promising athletes were unable to showcase their talents for six years. Even with some of the hiccups noted at the fiesta, it was great to have the NSF back.
The open format added to the glamour with top athletes like Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, Yinka Ajayi, Joy Udoh-Gabriel, Chidi Okezie and Mercy Abiri.
In Table Tennis, Segun Toriola and Funke Oshonaike added colour just as Oduayo Adekuoroye did in wrestling and Wellington Jeghire did in scrabble. Many argued that it was better to allow only young athletes from the grassroots to compete at the games, but we make bold to say the blend of experience and youth gave exposure to the up and coming athletes in various sports disciplines.
The few athletes with huge hearts created upsets at the games to bring themselves to limelight and we expect the national coaches of various sports federations to work on athletes who excelled at Abuja 2018 NSF. It is also important to ensure that 2020 host, Edo State, must be well monitored to deliver the games in two years.
Nigerian youths must not be made to experience what some of them faced when the event was in limbo for six years. However, year 2018 was a bag of mixed fortunes for Nigeria.
The World Cup took place in Russia and the Eagles crashed out in the group stage. We call for the evaluation of the administration of football in the country because of the huge number of people who made it to Russia for political reasons. We also frown at the way some Nigerian fans embarrassed the country by attempting to stay in Russia until they were arrested and sent back to the country.
It was a huge disgrace with the racketeering over the Fan ID card scheme FIFA introduced to boost attendance at the World Cup venues. We, however, commend the NFF for avoiding crisis with the players at the tournament.
NFF elections took place shortly after the World Cup and for the first time in decades, incumbent, Amaju Pinnick, was re-elected along with many of the former board members. This continuity should help translate into results for the country in the weeks and months ahead.
It is impressive that the Super Eagles have booked a ticket to play in this year Nations Cup even with one match to spare. Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 and 2017 editions of AFCON. In other sports, Nigeria hosted African Wrestling Championship and the huge investment of Governor Nyeson Wike of Rivers State was crowned as Nigeria emerged overall champions. Wrestlers like Oduayo Adekuoroye and Blessing Oborodudu are still doing well.
We hail the heroics of Aruna Quadri in the global table tennis scene. Apart from his club exploits, he won the African Championship and also emerged the winner of Lagos Open, an international event raked by the ITTF.
Quadri rose to 18th in the world, the first African to enter the Top 20 bracket. It is sad that 2018 recorded more crises than developments. Apart from football which is still engulfed in domestic league imbroglio, some of the federations in crisis are rugby, taekwondo, judo athletics and basketball. For example, the basketball federation has two factional presidents even though the world body recognized the Musa Kida board.
Two male basketball leagues were on the cards in 2018, but only one took place. There was in-fighting in the athletics federation over the appointment of a technical director. The Nigeria Football Supporters Club is also in crisis. There are two factional heads and they have engaged themselves physically and otherwise over the soul of the body. We are aware that some sports federations not in crisis are dormant. Tennis, table tennis, swimming, gymnastics, boxing, badminton, squash, volleyball, cycling, handball, and hockey are not functioning well.
The athletes are crying because there are no competitions to keep them in shape. Unlike before, many of the federations do not have programme. All the same, the year ended on a bright note with the Super Falcons winning the African Women Nations Cup. We must emphasize that other African countries are fast catching up with Nigeria.
The Falcons won the semi and final games through penalties and we expect the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to support the Head Coach Thomas Denneby to strengthen the Super Falcons. We call on sports administrators to embrace peace to get results for Nigeria and government should provide a better enabling environment for the sector. Better funding and adequate facilities are required to take sports to the next level in Nigeria.
