DAWN Games will foster unity among youths in South West, says Ibirogba • Ogun shapes up for tourney
Chairman of Media and Publicity Subcommittee of the DAWN Games, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, has said that the tournament would help foster good relationship among the youth of the south-west states of the country
The maiden edition of the DAWN Games, a competition among secondary schools in Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States, will be held in Lagos from May 16 to 24, 2014.
The chairman of the Media Subcommittee, who is also the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State said the competition would bring youth in the region together to compete in a healthy environment, adding that the DAWN Games is symbolic because the south-west states want to show the rest of the country the cordial relationship that exists within the people and governments of the region and the need to use youth and sports to preach unity among the people.
Meanwhile, as the kick off date of the Games draws nearer, Team Ogun say they can’t wait for the school sports championship to start.
Director of Sports, Ogun State Sports Council, Mr. Adesola Faleti, said the state’s athletes are ready and are in good sporting form to excel at the competition.
“The athletes have been training for a couple of months. We are going to participate in 12 sports events and in Ogun State, we specialise in more than 33 sports, thus taking 12 out of 33 won’t be a problem for us,” said Faleti during the inspection of facilities and venues for the championship which took place recently in Lagos.
Faleti noted that the Games would enable Ogun State Sports Council to assess its grassroots developmental programmes which has been well supported by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, and more importantly it would assist the sports council the opportunity to replace
its ageing athletes.
”Since inception of Governor Amosun’s administration, we had been mandated to develop sports at the grassroots. I think the DAWN Games will definitely assist us to discover budding talent to replace the older athletes,” he said.
The former national pugilist said the state’s effective grassroots sports programme had earned Ogun a positive result as the National Sports Commission, NSC, invited over 22 athletes from the state to the national team, while six junior football players were also invited to the camp of the national U-13 team.
“DAWN Games can bring positive and better future for the nation as athletes we will discover in the regional championship can be selected for the country’s future international outings.
“I believe the DAWN Games is another opportunity to explain the commitment of the southwest state governments towards building Nigerian future stars who would take over from the ageing national athletes.
The DAWN Games is the needed grassroots developmental programme which we can use to aid the growth of sports and the wellbeing of our athletes,” he said.
He concluded that Ogun State Sports Council is working with the support of the Ministry of Education to place athletes that will excel in the DAWN Games on scholarship for them to continue their education.
The DAWN Games will feature 12 sports, which are athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, gymnastics, scrabble, swimming, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo and volleyball with over 2000 athletes and officials expected to participate.
The events will take place at Rowe Park Sports Complex, Yaba, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere and Agege Stadium. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Camp in Iyana-Ipaja will serve as the Games Village.
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