Friday, 12 July 2013
Nasarawa State government has expressed confidence in the ability of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to host the inaugural edition of the National Youths Games coming up in September, 2013.
This show of confidence is expressed amidst fears by some stakeholders over the possibility of human capital in the FCT to effectively and efficiently organise the games. Special adviser to Nasarawa State governor on sports development, Mr Silas Agara said the FCT being the ‘Center of Unity’ of the nation is the most suitable to host the inaugural game aimed at discovering young talents for the country.
He said Abuja aside being the most suitable venue in terms of security and closeness to all participating states, has the best facilities required to organize the games and set a high standard that would emulate subsequent host states . “Abuja has the facilities to host the games. It is the first edition of the championship and it is most appropriate to begin where it will not encounter any hitches. We agreed for Abuja to host because it is the most suitable to accommodate the convergence states of such magnitude. Hosting in Abuja will set a high standard for the games which the next host city will strive to meet,” he said.
The Main Organising Committee (MOC) for the games recently inspected the facilities that would be used in hosting the event. The team led by the Chairman of the MOC and Director of Grassroots Sports Development in the National Sports Commission (NSC), Malam Alhassan Yakmut inspected facilities at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, NSCDC Academy Abuja and the package B of the Abuja National stadium.
The team inspected the indoor sports hall, hockey pitch, swimming pool and the gymnasium located at the package B of the Abuja national stadium. Speaking to journalists at the end of the inspection, MOC chairman, Yakmut said the team was mandated by the minister of sports to exploit and explore all inter-agency collaborative possibilities to ensure that adequate arrangements are put in place to meet the standard of the first national youth games.
He expressed satisfaction with the quality of facilities in FCT. “One other reason we are holding this tour as an organising committee is to look at the face value of the existing facilities and ensure that they are also of standard and we are quite impressed with what we have seen,” he said.
