Wahid Enitan Oshodi Speaks On National Sports Festival.

As the Lagos State Government gets set for the 2012 National Sports Festival, the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Develoment, Honourable Wahid Enitan Oshodi, speaks on the readiness of the state for the sports fista in November, 2012.


Lagos can set the pace for others to follow with 18th National Sports Festival, says Oshodi.

The recent signing of protocol agreement between Lagos State and the National Sports Commission (NSC) has kick-started the 18th National Sports Festival to be hosted by Lagos in 2012. However, the State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Enitan Oshodi, who is an astute sports administrator, has also put his job on line to ensure that the state set the standard for others to follow in terms of hosting major sporting events. Oshodi, whose tenure as the chairman of the State Table Tennis Association threw up lots of talents for the country with his managerial skills and transparent style, which attracted lots of sponsors to the game. He told journalists recently that he was optimistic that the state hopes to use the festival to champion the needed revival of sports in the country.


What was the recently protocol agreement signed between Lagos State and NSC meant?

Well, they are two things. Legally the agreement set out the tasks that are to be imposed upon the state hosting the National Sports Festival as well as the work being done by NSC with regards to the festival.

More importantly, what it does now is that it tells us where our preparation needs to go. We have to double up our efforts with regards to our venues and accommodation for the athletes even training for our own athletes. January 2012 is going to be a very important month with regards to kick off. I have said that we will use six months to settle down to plan and we have done this.

His Excellency, Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has been supportive in all our works. Now, it is time for the work to show. Lagos will not leave on its past glory, we are setting out new glory in the coming year.

We have a massive crop of young athletes and it is time now to harness those athletes and get them develop for the future. Like the governor had said, winning the festival is not the main aim but the important thing about us hosting the festival is that we will host fairly for the first time in a long time, there will not be allegation of cheating, defection and we will ensure along with NSC that has given us the assurance, we will ensure that this will be a free and fair festival.

More importantly what you know with Lagos that you will have is that the fan base is massive. I keep on saying that every state has a massive fan base here in Lagos and it is our job to bring them to the stadium and halls to support their states.

What we intend to do is to put up a great show. Everybody talks about the Rivers State opening and closing ceremonies. These were good opening and closing ceremonies but there were one or two problems, as we all know during the festival itself. We must commend Rivers State but we must now try to improve upon what they did especially in the areas of organization, transportation and accommodation.

We have to improve upon these things festival to festival. Like I keep on saying that the Director General of NSC, Patrick Ekeji has been so supportive so far and we expect their support throughout.

The festival belongs to all of Nigeria. We will be hosting and we will show off the best of Lagos. The 2009 U-19 World Cup has come and gone and everybody remembered how fantastic that was and it is history now. We are looking forward to the future. We will deliver full stadium and this is something that has never really happened at the National Sports Festival. Our intention is to deliver full stadium at every event because what motivates the athletes is the support.

We will ensure that the stadiums are full. Our private sector partners will get the best of publicity. The brands that had supported us in the past, we know they will be on board again. So, Lagos is now hosting not by choice but by the fact that it is the centre of excellence in Nigeria. We have to also replicate this in sports as well.

The National Sports Festival at the end of 2012, we pray and we will work hard, I think will be a time for us to say Lagos you have done it again.

How hot has been the seat of the Sports Commissioner of Lagos State in the last six months?

When I came on board, I told my friends in the media that we would need some time to settle down. They said to me, you have been in sports for a very long time, why did you need to settle down? I said it is a different seat and we found out that it is a different seat entirely.

It is easier when you are chairman of an association or member of the sports council even as private sector supporter of sports, it is much easier. But here, when you are on this seat now, there are lots of decision that have to be taken especially going into festival year. It is an Olympics year, all the states have to support NSC as well and there are lot of works involve.

In Lagos, you are not just a commissioner for your ministry, we are a team and it is a team effort. We support one another and thankful my colleagues have been very supportive. Sports is what I was brought in to work on and this is my constituency and with the support I have received from the media so far, I think it has lessen the impact of the problem that we have. But we are working on those problems and we have set out plans to deal with most of the problems, as we have to continue to develop our infrastructure.

We have to develop school sports, which I believe is the main focus of this administration. We go back to the schools because Nigeria was a successful nation when school sports was strong.

In Lagos, we have to set the pace again. The ministry of education is partnering with us and we are bringing back the school games and events as well as getting equipment into the schools where talents will emerge. The most difficult part is trying to get load of schools in Lagos involve but we have to get to all of them because we don’t know where talent is hiding.

Dearth of qualified games masters in schools, what is Lagos going to do about this?
You have raised a good point in that way. But the first step I think is that we have over a thousand schools in Lagos – Senior Secondary School, we cannot definitely lure a thousand coaches. But what we can do is to train the Physical Education teachers so that they can give the students a basic foundation in sports.

Once we do that, that is when you identify the talented athletes and we bring them to the districts and upward to the centre. You are right because we also require more coaches but again I keep going back to His Excellency who have been supportive and he has assured us that we will have all the people we will need to do this work.

We are hopeful that in 2012 the plans we have made will begin to show and we are really thankful to Ministry of Education because co-ordinating the children is a very difficult task but they have managed to do that. Everybody should remember that there are 20 million people in Lagos, which tells you the story of the schools. But we have had a few school events already and what we have seen has encouraged us greatly. We know we can do more and we shall be doing more in coming year.

Why did you put your job at stake in terms of the state hosting the festival?

It is a simple thing and this is something I believe in Nigeria we have to look out more critically. If you are a man of honour and you set out to do a job properly and if at the end of the day, you fail completely.

I think honour behooves that you leave that job for somebody else to try. It does not necessarily mean you are a failure but it means is that probably somebody else can do it better than you. So it is a discussion between His Excellency and I have had.

His Excellency is fully in support of the sports festival but then he also look at it that in Lagos, we have other critical issues to deal with and we are dealing with those issues.

But at the same time, he recognizes the importance of physical well-being of the populace and he knows that the festival will encourage that. Not only will the festival encouraged that, it will help in boosting our economy, develop our infrastructure and most importantly, it will bring our youth together in one big event.

Like I said, I am very happy in my job and I don’t want to lose it and I am working hard to ensure that we succeed. But in Lagos, we don’t know failure. We plan properly, do our team work and pray to God that we succeed.

I believe the next template of how event should be held in Lagos. It is not going to be a sporting event alone, it is an entertainment event and we are bringing the best of the state out on show. We are hopeful, 2012 is going to be a very busy year as the Olympics is coming.

I am personally doing my work with NOC on the issue of sports arbitration. Something we feel will be very important and useful during the festival. Hopefully, the festival will be the first test of the sports arbitration.

There is a lot of work to be done and we will continue seeking for the support of the media.