Lagos State seems on top of the oncoming 18th National Sports Festival following the verdict of delegates at the maiden Joint Technical Meeting held last week in Lagos. However, a member of the Main Organising Committee (MOC) and Vice Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC), Wahid Oshodi, believes that this year's festival will champion the resuscitation of Nigerian sports, while the flaws associated with past tournaments will be avoided in its entirety. Oshodi, who is also the Lagos State Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Social Development, told OLALEKAN OKUSAN that the state is poised to stage befitting games as a template for others to follow.WHAT is Lagos going to do differently from previous editions of the National Sports Festival'I think the most important thing for the National Sports Festival is that we have to go back to the condition that necessitated the start of the festival. The games are there to unite us as a country and assist us in discovering talents that abound all over the country. Even though at the last edition in Rivers State, the preparation and facilities were good, with a bit of hiccup, generally it was very good games.But in terms of sporting fairness, there were a lot of complains and I think we have to find a way to unite this country using the games. It is a friendly games and that essence has to be taken out of it. We are expecting people to come to Lagos to have a good time and compete fairly, which is very important. Governor Babatunde Fashola has reiterated over and again that the purpose of the competition is for it to be fair and the best man wins. We are really going to be working very hard with the National Sports Commission to ensure that this is done, more importantly on the discovery of talents.For example, we in Lagos are holding our own school sports month and state sports festival and what we are really hoping to do is that major part of our team will come from the schools, thereby focusing on the grassroots because the schools form the grassroots. We need to get young people into sports much earlier. We need our national coaches to be watchful by looking out for talents and I think what we really want to do in Lagos is to ensure that the games are friendly and people have a great time in Lagos.But more importantly, we want to ensure that the competition is free and fair so that it will be a major achievement for the National Sports Festival because if we continue down the path we have been going over the last three to four games, you will soon see a situation where states might boycott the festival due to accusations of rampant cheating, transfer of athletes from state to state and other unsporting action that have brought the shine off the festival.These are things we need to ensure that all the people that come to watch have a great time as well as those who come to compete in Lagos. They are coming home because Lagos is home to every Nigerian and we will love to put up a good show for them.How ready are the facilities to be used for the games'At the first inspection, the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, Patrick Ekeji, gave Lagos 85 per cent, and we are not carried away by this because we know there are still lots of work to be done. The governor has told us that we needed to make sure all our facilities were in place latest by September. This we are working on and we have an LOC of quality people and they have shown serious commitment so far.These are busy people and have taken time out of their schedule to support the course of the games. Though there is still a lot of work that needed to be done with respect to our facilities, we have our timeline in place and are working with it. For now, we are a bit ahead of our timeline, which gives us good confidence. But generally, we know that people are expecting a lot from Lagos, being the centre of excellence.The aim of this government is to ensure that our infrastructure at all time is in good condition, not just because of the festival. Considering the support we have received from the LOC so far, I think we are definitely on course to meet the deadline.Why did you put your job on the line to stage a successful festival'I think it is something that keeps on coming up every time but the issues are very simple. I believe in public service; if you are given the chance to serve, you do a good job. But if you cannot do a good job, then you should allow somebody else to try. I am not even thinking of that right now because we have put things in place to ensure successful games and this is not an issue at all.With the support of the governor and deputy governor, the LOC chairman, a lot of hard work has been put in for the success of the games and we have also received support from the executive council at every stage. We also have to thank the acting Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdulahi, and Ekeji because they have been very supportive.
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