21st National Sports Festival holds November 2022 in Delta
The National Council On Sports (NCS) has approved November 2022 for the 21st edition of National Sports Festival billed for Asaba, Delta State capital.
This was contained in a statement released by the media aide to Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare on Monday after the extraordinary National council of sports meeting.
According to the statement, the festival, tagged ‘Asaba 2022’ will amid fanfare and pageantry holds from November 2 to 15 of the same month.
The Minister noted that the meeting became imperative in the bid to engage all the stakeholders with a view of achieving a successful event.
“Therefore, this meeting today puts us at the cusp of another National Sports Festival (NSF) which we refer to as our own Olympics. The National Council on Sports meeting today has become necessary in order to update Council on developments, and deliberations on issues that concern the hosting of the 21st National Sports Festival which Delta State had earlier won the rights to host in November 2022”. He said.
Delta, who got the hosting rights for the event after clinching the last edition in Edo will be looking forward to retain the title, even as the Sports Minister described the state as “incubator of talents for sports development.
Meanwhile, the Minister also announced that the Ministry in collaboration with the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has established a Department that is solely responsible for the National Sports Festival and Para-Sports.
Dare lauded Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State for his commitment to sports development and thanked him for keying into the ‘Adopt an Athlete initiative’ of the Ministry
“He single-handedly adopted the largest number of athletes(12) and we are glad that out of the two medals we won, one of them was won by one of the athletes adopted by the Governor. That is Ese Brume,” the Minister said of the Governor.
The climax of the event was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the hosting of the NSF tagged ‘Asaba 2022’
In his own remarks, Governor Okowa appreciated the Ministry and promised that the state will better all expectations in the hosting of the event.
The State, having won the festival seven times from the last nine editions since 2000 had earlier set up a 12-man Main organising committee (MOC) for the event.
The National Council For Sports (NCS), which includes representatives from all the States of the federation including the federal capital territory (FCT) is the highest decision-making body for sports development in Nigeria.
