Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, is thinkering with a new template to raise the standard of the National Sports Festival (NSF) and make future hosting of the Sports fiesta more inclusive among the states of the Federation.
Dare made the revelation on Sunday in Ogun State when he met the State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, in his bid to build concensus for future hosting of the festival after the completion of the 20th edition held in Edo State which generated a lot of controversies over changes in choice of host state.
He said, “the review, which will be along the lines of strengthening the games, athletes’ protection and template for bidding among other things, will have a committee announced soon.
The Minister gave further insights into the proposed changes saying, “there is a new template for the NSF which will have a 360 geo political spread. This spread will be introduced such that we move it from the northwest zone to bid this year and two years later it goes to the southwest so that it moves around the whole country.”
In a series of tweets by Oluwakemi Anne-Melody Areola, the Minister stated that this is the only way to avoid the scenario of back to back hosting of the games within the same geo political zone.
“The terms of reference for a committee to review the National Sports Festival will be stated clearly and we would look at how to further strengthen the NSF for better sports Development.
“We have started the process and next week we will announce the review committee,” he said.
