Season 3 Lagos Sports Summer Camp Will Be Bigger, Glamorous – Gafaar Assures Students

The past one month has been an eventful one for Lagos students as the Lagos State Sports Commission, in its bid to take school sports to the next level, organized an all-inclusive holiday programme where the students are afforded the opportunity of coming together, irrespective of social status, religious and ethnic backgrounds, under one roof, to learn and be exposed to the basic rudiments of some sporting activities and life skills.

The programme tagged Lagos Sports Summer Camp, it was held in the three senatorial districts of the state with each district having a centre in Badagry, Ikorodu and Surulere.

As the third phase was rounded off at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, the Director-General, Lagos Sports Commission, Mr Oluwatoyin Gafarr, an erudite sports administrator, commended the participants who are within 9-14 years drawn from both public and private schools in the state. He praised what he described as the enthusiasm showed by the students to learn new things that will be of great help in their future.

P.M. EXPRESS reports that the students were engaged in activities that covered 60 percent of sports (Athletics, Basketball, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Judo, Swimming, Taekwondo, Chess, Scrabble, Monopoly and Ayo) and the remaining 40 percent in life skills

“I so much moved with what these children did in the course of the summer camp. They showed discipline, ability to learn very fast, they saw the camp as a home away from home and they gave us the adults a kind of assurance that the future is very bright for them.

“For Lagos State sports, I can tell you, these children have shown that we will soon have a large pool of budding talents to replace the ageing athletes who are on the verge of retiring. This is our joy that what we are doing is adding value to the vision of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the youth of the state,” Gafaar said in an interview on Friday.

The DG disclosed that with the successful organization of the second edition of Lagos Sports Summer Camp, there is assurance that the 2022 edition will be bigger, colourful and glamorous.

“The takeaway is that we should be looking forward to a greater summer camp next year where we will have more students. We had 120 per centre this year, so, in the next edition we will have an increased number and this time, we will look at organizing it in the five divisions of the state with the involvement of the private sector which has seen the beauty of what we did in the past two editions and are ready to partner with us,” he said.

Speaking about the feedback from the parents and what post-event programmes for the students would look like, Gafaar noted that the parents were so happy with what the children have learnt in the camp, adding that like Oliver Twist, the parents are asking for more from Mr Governor.

“The children have been exposed to how to produce some daily basic things needed at every home. Life skills such as the production of power bank, Hat Making, Make-up, Tie and Dye, Brick Laying and other vocational skills were taught by professionals in the camp. We have informed the parents to support the children with a little amount of money to begin to do those things at home for the benefit of immediate family members. Take, for example, there is no home that we won’t see people using the handsets, and for children to undertake the production of the power banks for the people at home, I think the multiplier effect of the value of what had been learnt at the summer camp is better imagined.

“We told the parents to get these children on video and send same to us for us to celebrate these children on our social media platforms for the world to see the entrepreneurial skills in our kids. This is the joy of Mr Governor for giving approval for the organisation of Lagos Sports Summer Camp. What happened during the camp were practical things that everybody could see,” he said.

P.M. EXPRESS reports that Season II of the Lagos Sports Summer Camp was divided into three phases in line with the Senatorial Districts of the state with Phase I being held at the Badagry Grammar School, from 15 to 21 August 2021; Phase II at the Oriwu Model College, Ikorodu from 22 to 28 August, while Phase III at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere began on Sunday, 5 September and ended on Saturday, 11 September 2021.

All participants will receive Certificates of Participation at the end of the educative, informative and entertaining Lagos Sports Summer Camp.