Despite the odds, the challenges the much-awaited Edo 2020 National Sports Festival NSF is done and dusted courtesy of the effort put in place by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development under the able leadership of Chief Sunday Dare, in this interview he talked about the general overview of the event, the most fascinating games, amongst other.

Can you tell us, your general overview of Edo 2020 NSF? 

I think, by and large, expectations have been met as a ministry, the objective of NSF have remained the same as a tool of national unity and also to bring our young talent from across the length and breadth of this country, the 36 states and FCT gathered here and apart from the colorful atmosphere, we have seen the great spirit of sportsmanship, we have seen the great display of talent and skill, we have seen cutting-edge competition among our young athletes. 

And we have seen the kind of record-breaking, the excitement from the opportunity to participate, it is incomparable having waited over a year to do it some of them have trained and practice for two years so the opportunity to do the NSF for me it’s important and we have achieved that.

Interestingly, you have been to different centers watching athletes play live games which of them caught your attention? 

I watched more than 10 different sports and I am excited this country has great potential and talents when it comes to sports and what is lacking is that of private partnership and private participation in our sports. The government has done enough already and we need to appreciate that.

Nigeria should be one of the top swimming countries in the world, that is also a sport you can easily win the highest number of medals so, the most important is how to develop a swimming program and partner especially if you look at the South and the far North Arugugu fishing festival people swim it’s a natural talent, so we need to really focus on swimming because from the Olympics alone we can get 10 medals that one. 

Of course, football is king, I am glad to be here this morning to watch the final female football. Female football is on the rise apart from youth football development, FIFA is committed to the development of female football, and we can say we have arrived when comes to male football. 

I have watched basketball it’s terrific, raw talent what validate that more was the fact that, for the record, this country is taking male and female basketball teams to the Olympics

Also, I watched Handball this morning fantastic, wrestling this is where we have world-beater numbers 1 and 2 in the world are from this country, Badminton, Gymnastics skill and talent are endless.

King of them all is track and field Athletic, we saw a lot of talent some of them we invested in them under our adoption of athletes initiative Campaign.

We’ve been founding them, they can pay their coaches, and get the right nutrition they need we have seen that working for us and we are going to intensify on that, we are going to put them together as Olympics team to make sure they are properly funded, I think the future is bright for our sports, all we need is a sustainable model and that is the challenge we have as a ministry to build the sustainable model that grows this talent.

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