Win At All Costs In National Youth Games, Dangerous Trend For Nigeria Sports, Aiyepeku Warns
Executive Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Mr. Sola Aiyepeku has described the attitude of winning at all costs by some states in the ongoing 6th National Youth Games as a dangerous trend that won’t serve Nigeria sports well in the long run.
P.M. EXPRESS reports that the National Youth Games, which is ongoing, is holding at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, north-central Nigeria.
According to Aiyepeku, while the National Youth Games serves as a competitive platform for the nation to discover young athletes who will be a pool of talents to replace fast ageing athletes who are fading away from Nigeria’s sporting arena today, this objective has been rubbished by some ‘unrepentant’ states which are hell-bent in fielding overaged athletes in the tournament.
“How can we explain a situation when athletes of 10-11 years old competing with their seniors in a youth games? It is a sad scenario. If we continue like this, as a nation, it will not end well. In those days, Nigeria was a leading force in Africa sprint, but today, other countries have taken over from us. This is because we don’t have the pool of athletes from the domestic front who will take over from the ageing ones.
“What is happening in Ilorin is begging for a national question that, are we truly for development of our sports and the development of these athletes or we are just here for the win at all costs? This makes us very sad as a state in Lagos.
“When we are talking about the greater Lagos, we must also be focusing our life on a greater nation. We can’t be talking about the greater nation in the midst of all these incidents happening in Ilorin
“The National Youth Games is supposed to be a platform to discover these young athletes, but we are messing it up now. It is quite discouraging,” Aiyepeku warned.
The Chairman was full of commendation for Team Lagos athletes for putting up good fights in their respective sports despite the unfavourable environment they are competing in at the Games in Ilorin.
“I am very happy with our athletes, they conducted themselves very well, they are disciplined, they have been responsible and they have adjusted well to the adversity they have been facing since the competition started, this makes me very happy.
“The results so far have reflected the kind of adversity they have been facing in the games, it shows clearly the reason they have not been able to convert many silver and bronze medals they had to gold medals for the state.
“With what I have seen here, it is cleared that those athletes Team Lagos have been competing against are not in the same age group as stipulated for the Youth Games at all. The whole screening was thrown into chaos when athletes who were screened out before were allowed to be in taken again, It shows to us that from the beginning there is no level playing ground.
“In Lagos, our focus is on the development of the athletes and we are happy that these young athletes are making us proud.
“We won’t relent from doing what we believe is good for us because the future of these athletes has been incorporated in our sports policy which is centred on development,” he said.
Speaking on what Lagos could do to seek redress and solution to the problems noticed at the National Youth Games in Ilorin, Aiyepeku noted that “We are bound by the rules of the games, so Lagos doesn’t create the rules, however, we will try within the rule to seek redress. We are also hoping that we will be the agent of change, leading the crusade against the atrocities being committed
“If we can change the fundamentals to let everybody see the need to do the right things. For example, the age cap needs to be changed from U-15 to say U-17. All over the world, there is a status age for youth games. I think it is high time Nigeria steps up to get to this standard, maybe this will help the development we are looking for.
“In Lagos, we are sticking to our developmental programme because it is bearing fruits and the result is there for everybody to see.
“The joy is that our young athletes are competing with their seniors and they are still winning silver and bronze medals. This shows that if there is a level playing ground, the story might have been different. Sports is about techniques, what we are doing is to build these athletes up with techniques in their various sports at these tender ages, so that they will grow with it to become skilful athletes in their sports.”
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