The 22nd National Sports Festival, tagged Gateway Games Ogun 2024, originally scheduled for January 12th, has been postponed and will now take place in 2025, from May 16th to 30th.
This announcement was made in a communiqué issued on Thursday at the conclusion of the Joint Technical Meetings held in Abeokuta, Ogun State’s capital.
While reading the communiqué, the Secretary of the Main Organising Committee (MOC), Thecla Opara, explained that the postponement was necessary to implement some of the recommendations made by the technical committee in order to ensure the festival meets world-class standards.
“The committee agreed that in order to give some time to effect the observations and recommendations from the Joint Technical Meeting, the dates for the 22nd National Sports Festival should be adjusted to May 16-30, 2025; and the Zonal Eliminations for Team Sports for the Games would hold from February 23-28, 2025,” the communiqué reads.
The joint committee also urged the MOC Secretariat to revise the Games timeline and share it with all relevant stakeholders.
After the meeting, Bukola Olopade, Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), discussed the decision, explaining that while the Ogun State government and the Local Organising Committee were strongly opposed to the postponement, the technical committee and MOC felt additional time was needed for preparation.
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“The communique is clear but what the communique did not capture was that the Ogun state government, and the Local Organising Committee were vehemently against any postponement. But in the wisdom of the Technical Committee, and the Main Organising Committee, they felt there were so many elements that needed to come together for us to give Nigerians the new definition of sports economy and ecosystem as defined by the President, there was a need to push it forward,” Olopade stated.
“We are excited that we have a new date. This gives us five months to properly put everything together and show the whole country what capacity is all about,” he added.
The Chairman of the technical committee also highlighted that the existing facilities needed upgrades to meet international standards, as specified by the committee.
“Technically, we looked at the facilities, and as professionals, we want something that would be peculiar, and nearer to the Olympics.
“So looking at all the facilities put on ground by the Ogun state government, we felt that it would be better for the facilities to be properly fine-tuned to meet the standard so that our athletes would enjoy and not manage,” he remarked.
