For the first time in the history of the National Sports Festival, the date scheduled for the event has not be uttered by the host state while lots of innovations have also been included in the sports fiesta by the host - Lagos of the 18th edition tagged Eko 2012. From the day the protocol agreement was signed to the start of the festival, Lagos has kept to all details and for the Secretary General of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Kweku Tandoh, Eko 2012 has indeed thrown a major to other states hoping to host the championship. Despite the challenges faced prior to the games, Tandoh admitted that the cordial relationship between LOC and MOC has helped to lift the games.
How will you assess the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012?
In terms of the organisation of the festival I want to say and I believe the LOC has done very well in terms of providing facilities we had to provide. In terms of providing logistics, accommodation, feeding, security and medical to a large extent we have been able to cope. With everything that has happened since the festival started and this is just a testimony to the planning that has been put in place over the last nine to ten months that the LOC has been functioning. On a general level and speaking to a number of people, the MOC and honourable Minister of Sports I believe the LOC has done very well for this festival.
We have been getting complains about feeding and accommodation, what has the LOC done to make sure all these things are been taken care of?
When you speak of accommodation, the earlier complains we received were actually by people who we were not mandated to provide accommodation for. We were mandated to provide accommodation for athletes, coaches and a certain category of officials and this we have done and even surpassed in terms of provision of accommodation but we found out that a lot of states came into the games village with a lot of people that have not been accredited and so we have more people in the games village that are not suppose to be there and that is what some people termed as having accommodation hitches. We have appealed to the states to ask all those who came with them and are not meant to be in the games villages to vacate the games villages so that those we were supposed to provide for can enjoy what we have put in place for them. Also in terms of entertainment, the athletes after the competition have a lot of activities lined up. For example, starting from Tuesday, film shows would be shown in all the games village. Film shows, music, cultural performance will be available every evening from 7pm. Also, we have put a tourism package together for the athletes especially those that are from outside Lagos and that started at the weekend. We have the sea tour and the bus tour. The sea tour takes them around Lagos by boat and we are using the boats at Oyinkan Abayomi Jetty in Victoria Island and I was at the flag off of that tour and I must tell you that the athletes were excited and I saw some of them when they came back saying they really had an exciting time on board and also educationally they were able to see a lot of things they have only read in the newspapers and history books. So everyday, we would be having these tours. Centres have been set up in all the games villages for people to register for the tours, the tour is captioned “See Lagos, Feel Lagos” and everyday it would be available by sea and by land to take people around Lagos state to get the benefit of Lagos .
In terms of the events taking place at the National Stadium like boxing and table tennis, there were complains about lighting, what is the role of LOC in terms of the National Stadium?
There is a limit to what the LOC can do there. The National Stadium is a federal facility and we expect that the National Sports Commission would upgrade at least those aspects of the National Stadium that we would be using for the festival. But for one reason or the other they were not able to do it so we had to at the last minutes put up some contingency plans to get those places up and running. The fact that we are even able to have any event at the National Stadium is because of the work we had to do to bring them up to the standard where they are right now. It is not a nice story about the stadium but I believe the Honourable Minister of Sports who has also been visiting the venues for these games would have noted the areas of deficiency and I am sure they would do something about the National Stadium.
It was in the news that some military men beat up some athletes and we have the presence of military men in all the venues, what the LOC is doing to ensure this did not repeat itself?
It is an incident that was brought to our attention and we acted on it immediately, we got the Army Commandant to speak to his men and ask them to be patient with the athletes. Also the athletes have to be patient and we believe it was just a misunderstanding and we can assure it would not repeat itself again. The opening ceremony was applauded all over the world, what should we expect for the closing ceremony? The opening ceremony like closing ceremony of such event is usual a bit more carefree in terms of it being more fun, more of a party, more of a carnival atmosphere that notwithstanding the LOC is putting together a closing ceremony that would remain in the mind of Nigerians and even the rest of the world. All I can say for now is that we are going to have a lot of musical acts like Whizzkid, Wande Cole and efforts are being made to get one or two others that would be added. But in the next couple of days, we would have a list of those that would be entertaining. Even before the official closing ceremony starts at about 6pm we would have the gates open about 2pm and between that time and 6pm there will be a lot of entertainment and musical shows entertaining the crowd before the closing ceremony and after the closing ceremony the party continues as there will be fireworks and other entertainments. It is going to be an event we believe is going to stay in the mind of everyone that is available to see. And talking about seeing the festival, I would like to invite everyone to our website, www.eko2012ng.com. There is a feature on the website that allows you to view events as they are taking place live at many of the centres. Most of the events are been streamed live that you can sit down in your home and use your phone, iphone, ipad or laptop to watch events that are been streamed live.
Being the Secretary General of the LOC, what are the challenges you have faced during the last few months?
It has been an exciting time for me because challenges must come with the job. I have been working with an excellent team, the LOC is headed by Her excellence the Deputy Governor of Lagos State and if you know her very well she is a an excellent administrator who has made herself available by ensuring that things are done properly. The LOC vice- chairman, who is also the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development is also a pleasant person to work with and we have the rest of the LOC members, chairmen of the sub-committees, and everyone has been wonderful. Together we have worked as a team and whatever we have been able to do is because of the joint effort that everyone has put in. For me as the Secretary General it has been exciting, I have learnt a lot over time, I have been exposed to a lot of other areas I did not know about but the totality of the experience is something that would always be with me and I am sure would help me in my future endeavours.
Can you tell us how much has been spent to organise this festival?
I am not too sure about the exact figure but I know there was a figure approved for the festival sometime in December which was about N5billion by the House of Assembly and I know the state has not gone back to ask for more money. So whatever we have spent is in line with that budget, which is another plus for the Lagos State government because it means we have been able to keep everything below bar and been able to work in line of the budget allocated
How much has the private sector been able to contribute?
The private sector has done quite well and they could have done better but for one reason or the other we are in the situation we are in now. But I will also commend those that put in money and products and as we got closer to the festival, many more came on board but it is something that we would have liked to see more commitment earlier so as to help us plan better and also to have helped us integrate them into what we are doing. The support of the private sector has been encouraging for us in Lagos state and I am sure it is something we would build on for future events. In addition, we have done a lot of things in preparation for the festival. We organised international sports seminar where we had speakers from all over the world come to talk to us about the legacies of hosting sporting events. We have empowered our people in Lagos state and we have put in place infrastructures that would be available for Lagosians to use to develop themselves in various sports. We have a brand new sports medicine in Rowe Park and we have also gone overboard in providing an adequate environment for athletes to perform in terms of providing for their welfare, giving them an atmosphere where they can relax and also where they can mazimize their sporting potentials so that at the end of the day they come out with performances that would be to the benefit of Nigeria. We also have worked on this arrangement with the private sector. We have gotten good support from the private sector and more than anything else I believe we have been able to tell the world that indeed we can begin to operate in Nigeria using international standards and that is what we are trying to do in every sub-committee, for in every assignment at Eko 2012. It is not the way it used to be but the way it should be and that has been our driving force in everything we have done. I believe we have been able to set new grounds, lay new standards that subsequent festivals and hosts of festivals would build upon to take Nigerian sports to where it is supposed to be.
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