Hurdles in the way of National U-17 Games

It will be recalled that when the minister of sports and chairman National Sports Commission, NSC, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi announced at the opening ceremony of the 18th edition of the National Sports Festival in Lagos that future editions of the games would be open to accommodate professional athletes, it attracted wide condemnation from those who […]

It will be recalled that when the minister of sports and chairman National Sports Commission, NSC, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi announced at the opening ceremony of the 18th edition of the National Sports Festival in Lagos that future editions of the games would be open to accommodate professional athletes, it attracted wide condemnation from those who felt it was not in tandem with the spirit behind the games. The National Sports Festival is a hunting ground for budding talents.
It is said when the criticisms reached a crescendo, the commission after the National Council on sports meeting in Ilorin, Kwara State decided to come up with the National Youth Games to accommodate those youths who would not be able to compete in the same pool with the elite athletes.  The Youth Games is therefore aimed at encouraging the 36 states and the FCT to discover and develop talents that abound at the grassroots.
The hosting right for the maiden edition of the games has been granted the Federal capital Territory but indications are strong that if something urgent is not done on the part of the federal government, the games may not hold this year as intended.
The Main Organising Committee for the games being chaired by Malam Alhassan Yakmut who is the Director in charge of Grassroots sports development in the NSC embarked on inspection of facilities that would be used for the games.
After the inspection, the committee expressed satisfaction with the facilities offered by the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC at its training school in Abuja and those at the package B of the Abuja National stadium.
Even as the committee acknowledged the availability of the required facilities for the hosting of the games, a thick cloud of doubt still hang over the readiness of the states to send in athletes for the games. Due to financial constraints, it is not so clear if all the states would be able to feature at the maiden edition of the games which was scheduled for August 29 to September 7.
Consequently, when the sports commission recently announced the postponement of the games till December, it did not come to many as a surprise. Observers said apart from the unwillingness on the part of the state to participate in the youth games, the host is yet to come out with a definite position on the games.
In recent times, the FCT sports council which is directly saddled with the responsibility of hosting the games has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The council is currently battling with corruption allegations levelled against it by the FCT chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN.
Thus, the FCT Director of sports, Malam Alim Musa is presently occupied with the struggle to save his job and may not be in the mood to coordinate activities that would lead to a befitting event. Moreover, the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed and the secretariat in charge of sports in the territory are said to be piqued by the stories of corruption that have emanated from the sports council and may not be favourably disposed to sponsoring the games.
 Although the chairman of the man organising committee has since given other reasons for the recent shift in the games, it cannot be said the FCT itself is ready to host the sporting fiesta. For instance, the organising committee is still waiting for final approval from the minister of the FCT.
When contacted, Yakmut told Shot! that the games would hold as re-scheduled. He said being an annual event, the games must hold this year so that next year’s edition would also hold as planned.
Furthermore, he threw more light on the position of the ministry of FCT as far as hosting the games is concerned.
He said “We have decided to shift the date for the games to allow the host put finishing touches to its preparations. The FCT administration is sincere in its commitment to the games but the FCT sports council through the Social development secretariat would need the final approval of the minister of FCT.
“Indeed it is a tripartite arrangement. It is going to be a collaborative effort involving the NSC, the FCT administration and the private sector. Once the final approval is received from the FCT, the NSC would provide intervention funds for the games to hold.
On the new date for the games, Yakmut said the 2013 edition of the youth sports festival will now hold between December 6- 15 when schools would be on the long term break. “Before we arrived at a new date for the games, we took into consideration the academic calendar of the schools. We discovered that at the earlier scheduled date, most of the students would still be in school.
“We therefore decided to take the games to December, at a period when most of the schools would be on break. By our calculation, from December 6 to 15, the games would not clash with the academic activities of the students.
Asked why the number of events for the games have been slashed, Yakmut said “It is to allow states come with the contingent that they can handle. The technical requirement for the events would be demanding and so there is need to encourage the states to cut their coats according to their size”.
This was the optimism expressed by the chairman of the games MOC but December is around the corner and if the present state of sports in the FCT is anything to go by, it is hard to confidently say the maiden edition of the National Youth Games would be a success. Indeed, there are multiple hurdles the organisers must overcome to stage the games.