Foreigners In Festival, A DisgraceTo Nigeria –Oshikoya

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The 18th National Sports Festival, which enters the fourth day on Friday, 30 November, 2012, may not yield the expected fruits based on the allegations that some states are featuring mercenaries from neighbouring countries such as Benin Republic and Niger Republic.

The above statement came from former national and commonwealth champion, Modupe Oshikoya, who was honoured with the Lifetime Sports Award at the Nigerian Sports Awards held at the Federal Palace Hotel in Victoria Island yesterday.

Oshikoya, who won 5 gold medals at the 1972-73 National Sports Festival was stunned to hear that athletes from other countries are hired by some desperate administrators to win the festival for their states.

It was gathered that some foreigners were allegedly registered to feature at Eko 2012, forcing some states to lodge series of protest letters to the Main Organising Committee, MOC of the Festival in Lagos.

This is not the first time that some states have included foreign athletes in their teams.

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Reacting to the whole scenarion, the former commonwealth champion, said: “No! That’s not possible. I don’t want to believe this happens, what is happening to our young boys and girls who are all over the country? It’s a shame if it’s true that states hire merceneries to represent them in the festival.”

Oshikoya said Nigeria is blessed with millions of talents in various sports, and it is the duty of the administrators and coaches to move around and discover them.

The California-based retired athlete lamented the poor state of Nigerian sports, and concurred that the standard of the National Sports Festival has dropped drastically.

“I am in town because of the Sports Festival, but I have not met the officials who invited me from the US. I have seen some events of the ongoing Eko 2012 and I think the facilities are good. But, I’m still waiting to see the electrifying moments that we were used to during our days.

“However, it’s sad that sports are not growing in Nigeria, and I will blame our poor grassroots programme for the lapses. It was disgusting that Nigerian athletes did not win a single medal at the London Olympics.These are results of our people’s lukewarm attitude to grassroots sports development,” she said.

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