Abuja Will Host Sports Festival If Calabar Fails – Sports Minister
Solomon Dalung, Minister of Youth and Sports Development[/caption]
Following uncertainty over the readiness of Cross River to host the 19th National Sports Festival, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung said Abuja may host the games, if the South-South State fails to fix a date.
Cross River won the rights to host the festival after the last Games in Lagos in 2012.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the festival, designed to hold biennially to discover talents for international and continental competitions, has suffered many postponements by proposed host states.
According to a statement issued in Abuja by the Minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Nneka Anibueze, Cross River State government was not forthcoming with a date for the event.
Advertisement
The statement further noted that the main Local Organizing Committee for the festival is demanding N650m from the Sports Ministry to host the games.
“We conveyed the National Council for Sports in Calabar and made several inspection tours of facilities to ensure that we hold the event this year,” Dalung said in a statement.
“But it does appear to us in the ministry that we might be going back to Plan B.
“Our plan B is that, if Cross River state cannot host the event, we will come back to Abuja and host the National Sports Festival.
Advertisement
“We are determined because without the National Sports Festival, we cannot enrich the talents’ profile of our athletes for national and international competitions.
“We have succeeded in hosting the National Youth Games against all odds and we will go back to our plan B if Cross River state relocates the burden of funding the games to the ministry.
“They have insisted that we provide as much as N650m for them to host the festival; if we had N650m, then why do we have to go to Calabar.”
The last festival was held in Lagos in 2012.
