By Clem Oluwole
And before I go further, I would like to recall a similar ordeal designed for the state’s contingent during the 1st National Sports Festival in 1973, also in Lagos.
The state’s contingent arrived in Lagos at 6 p.m. on August 14, 1973. The male members of the contingent and their officials were conveyed to the Yaba College of Technology, where they were to be camped, by a member of the accommodation sub-committee. On getting to the college premises, they met the North Central state’s contingent who had been accommodated there the previous day. That showed that the members of that important sub-committee were working not as a team.
The sportsmen were then moved to the Baptist Academy where the rooms had no windows. The B-P officials rightly rejected that place and went back to the College of Technology to demand to have their rightful place, but that became a waste of time. And as a result, the unfortunate sportsmen and the officials, led by the then honorary chairman of the state’s Basketball Association and now chairman of the Sports Council, Rev. A. J. O. Ameh, had to sleep on the field in the premises of the college where rampaging Lagos mosquitoes feasted on them till the following morning.
The search for an alternative lodging continued the next day. And the pity of it was that while some states’ contingents relaxed in their camps in preparation for the festival, the B-P sportsmen were being jerked from one likely camp to another under the scorching sun of Lagos. It was exactly 24 hours on arrival in Lagos that a brave, sensible and sympathetic member of the sub-committee came to the rescue of the weary sportsmen and their officials and resolved that they should be moved to Igbobi College, Yaba, to occupy a place meant for the Western State contingent due to arrive three days later.
The state female participants had a place originally allocated to them at the Yaba Trade Centre. Alright… but the place lacked essential facilities. No buckets with which to fetch water to bathe. Worse still, no toilets and bathrooms! The beds there had neither pillows… let alone mosquito nets. So, they too were feasted upon by the blood-sucking insects.
Now back to the four-day starvation: Reports reaching our sports desk said that all the male members of the state contingent numbering 376 slept in the open for four days at the premises of the University of Lagos… and fed at their own expense. A sum of N200 was, however, given to them by the National Sports Commission (NSC) to feed on Monday morning following a bitter protest lodged with a top official of the commission.
As it happened in 1973, the place allocated to the B-P sportsmen at the King Jaja Hall of the University of Lagos, was taken over by the Rivers state contingent. I should not be surprised if the chairman of the Accommodation Sub-Committee is from Rivers state.
And in his explanation, the Director of Sports, National Sports Commission, Mr. Jerry Enyeazu, told the B-P officials that a few days to the opening of the festival, some “dramatic” repairs were being carried out on some school premises booked for the participants.
As Mr. Enyeazu did not give details of the kind of repairs being carried out on those buildings – more than three of them – one cannot comment on the NSC’s lack of foresight.
That facer which ran between Saturday and Tuesday, has, no doubt, confirmed the fears of a large number of sportsmen and women who refused to report for camping in preparation for the current National Sports Festival. After all, a hungry man is an angry man.
The success of the festival largely depends on the performance of the participants. The main objective of the festival is to unearth hidden talents as well as to foster unity. But what show would one expect from a dejected hungry man or woman? And what kind of unity are we fostering by openly relocating a camp meant for one state to another state?
I hate looking for a scapegoat but those pre-festival problems faced by the state contingent were partly responsible for their poor performance during the 1973 fiesta. And I am wondering what should be expected from this pitiable bunch this time around.
But happily enough, Brigadier Henry Adefope, chairman of the National Sports Commission, has announced that the 3rd National Sports Festival will be held in Kaduna in 1977. This is welcome news because my fears were that only mediocre sportsmen and women from outside the federal capital will be too willing to go for the 1977 fiesta, were it to be held in Lagos again. For, apart from the Durbar Village being built in Kaduna for the postponed 2nd World Black and Africa Festival of Arts and Culture, which will house most of the participants, Kaduna is free from go slow, tension and frustration capable of wrecking the morale of our budding sportsmen and women.
Lastly, it is my sincere hope that the Benue-Plateau state male contingent will take their ordeals as a challenge and fare better than they did during the 1973 fiesta.
Culled from Saturday Commentary (August 9, 1975)
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