NSF: Sports categorisation, prerogative of NSC – Dalung

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, says the categorization of sports in the National Sports Festival (NSF) is the prerogative of the National Sports Council (NSC).

Dalung on Tuesday in Abuja that the performance of federations was also a key determinant to their participation at the NSF.

Some sports federations are protesting their non-inclusion in the festival due to their classification as optional sports in the 2018 NSF.

According to Dalung, the participation of sports in NSF is the prerogative of the national council of sports. It is the body that approves the classification and not the minister.

“If the body receives a technical report about the progress of the federation and their performances, it can admit it into the national sports festival.

“But if there is no technical report satisfying the level of progress recorded by a particular federation it will be difficult for such sport not to be classify as optional,’’ he said.

Dalung said that he understands that people are not happy because they would want to be given the chance to participate, but these thing are based on processes.

“If we circumvent that we will be advocating for impunity, I hope that is not what it is suggesting. “ he added.

Dalung advised sports federations to double their efforts to break out of the shackles of being classified as optional at the festival.

NAN reports that members of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation early last week protested their non-inclusion and vowed not to lie-low.

The members said they have register their disappointment with the Ministry of Sports, saying that they would stop at nothing to ensure that the sport was included in the forthcoming NSF.

NAN reports that scrabble was excluded from the festival due to its classification as an ‘optional sport’.

The 2015 World Scrabble Champion, Wellington Jighere also joined other scrabble players to expressed deep concern over the way scrabble which have recorded landmark successes was being treated with disdain in the country.

The players recalled that scrabble has helped in the development of students’ intelligent quotient across schools and the exploit on the international scene has earned the country the title as the number one scrabble playing nation in the world.

They also argued that the impact the sports have made in the world could not be wished away.

NAN report that Nigeria Moses Peter, came second at the World English Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) in Kenya last November and presently current world number two.

The players wondered why such a sport would not be included in the NSF.

The NSF would hold in Abuja in December.