25 February 2009
opinion
Lagos — Rivers State has been given the hosting right of the next National Sports Festival over Lagos who began a very visible campaign for it in the final days of the Festival here in Kaduna. According to sources close to the decision making room, Lagos was asked to standby anyhow for the same 2010 edition that has been farmed out to Rivers. This is said to be as a result of the current situation in the Rivers State, which a lot of the states in the country have been expressing doubts over, should the kidnapping situation do not abate by the time of the Festival.
One of the reasons the Festival body gave in asking Lagos to rest its 2010 bid was the fact that Ogun, having hosted three years ago in 2006 for the 15th edition of the games, it would be wrong to return to the same geographical zone for hosting, which Lagos is in, when there are good and credible bidders from another zone.
They say Lagos could have been given the 2010 bid had there been no other zones of the country in the bid contest outside the South West.
However, Lagos was assured of a definite slot in the subsequent edition of 2012. The standby status of the state for 2010 may not, however, be in the interest of the kind of Festival that the state is planning towards - a futuristic Festival that would have all kinds of state of the art facilities.
As a standby state, those kinds of facilities may not be in place should their standby status suddenly become transformed into the level of step-in in case of a breakdown in Rivers next year.
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