LSSF - Commissioner assures sponsors

Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Opeyemi Bamidele, has assured corporate bodies and individuals wishing to sponsor the forthcoming Lagos State Sports Festival of transparency.

He stated that the display of utmost transparency, which has been the hallmark of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, has become necessary in order to encourage sponsors.

Opeyemi said that the need for private sector participation in the funding of sports especially in Lagos is cardinal in view of competing needs of the State Government.

This, he noted, informed the current State Government’s policy of promoting private sector participation in sports development. He stressed that government alone cannot shoulder the responsibility of sports development in the state.

Apart from direct sponsorship, he emphasized, other areas where corporate and individual assistance is needed, which include the provision of sporting infrastructure and equipment to complement government’s efforts.

He said the re-introduction of Lagos State Sports Festival is one of the ways the present administration wants to foster sports development in the state. The Lagos State Sports Festival, a replica of the National Sports Festival, will hold between December 2, and 15, 2006 with competing athletes drawn from the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Government Develoment Areas in the state.

The game will be flagged off by His Excellency, Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Onikan Stadium on Saturday, which will equally hold the closing ceremony will also hold.

Bamidele noted that the 20 Local Governments and 37 LGDAs have made known their intentions to jostle for honours in the 33 sports.

He emphasized that every arrangement for the staging of a very successful addition for the year 2006 has been concluded and that come Saturday, the youth in the state will have another opportunity of show casing their skills and prowess in all the sports at display.

He described the entries by the local governments and LGDAs as spectacular, noting that from all indications, the festival would record more participants than last year. The number of entries for combative sports like boxing and judo has prompted the State Government to order for more boxing rings and judo mats so that the bouts can be decided on time.

Over 73 budding athletes were discovered at the 2005 festival and that some of the athletes were exposed to the national Sports Festival early this year. He added that, some of the young athletes displaced the so called elite athletes, which most of the participating states paraded at the 15th national sports festival held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The Commissioner appealed to sponsors to support the State Government efforts aimed at promoting the growth and development of sports with emphasis on the discovery of young talents at the grassroot.

Bamidele said that, unlike last year, when 2 KIA cars were given to the first and second Local Governments, 2 KIA buses will go to first and second while the Local Government that comes third would smile home with a generating set.