Cheers, Challenges, and Chaos: The Untold Stories of the 2024 National Sports Festival

Following two weeks of continuous activities at the 22nd National Sports Festival in Ogun State, ABIODUN ADEWALE reflects on several key moments that characterized the Gateway Games 2024.

Seventeen years following their initial hosting of the National Sports Festival, Ogun State once again hosted the remainder of Nigeria from May 16 to 30 for the 22nd iteration of this multisport competition.

Approximately 10,000 athletes vied for glory across roughly 38 different sporting events. For the fifth consecutive occasion and the ninth time overall, Delta State emerged as the dominant force. They secured a total of 126 gold, 100 silver, and 111 bronze medals, leading the medal count.

Beyond the assertion of being the best sports festival in the history of Nigeria, the games were defined by some moments, which tested the system and ultimately served as a template for subsequent editions.

Glamorous opening and closing ceremonies

To begin with, the perception of an average Nigerian about the glamour of the opening and closing ceremonies is the commonest yardstick to measure a successful National Sports Festival.

What stands out for an ordinary citizen of the hosting state would be how magnificent the evenings were, and Ogun State certainly did not let down expectations as they presented quite a show at the MKO Abiola Stadium on both Sunday, May 18, and Thursday, May 29.

From Asa to Waje, the renditions of the national anthems on both evenings were filled with emotion. It’s also worth mentioning the elaborate speech delivered by President Bola Tinubu, which was presented through his representative, Vice President Kashim Shettima.

When it came to performances, Davido stole the spotlight during the opening ceremony, while Wande Coal did the same at the closing ceremony, both leaving the audience eager for more.

The athletes also made an impressive appearance, with Team Lagos demonstrating the extensive preparation they've invested in their parade performance. Meanwhile, the hosts, Team Ogun, treated all to a vibrant display of 'Egbaliganza'.

Coincidentally, Governor Dapo Abiodun also marked his 65th birthday during the closing ceremony and the icing on the cake for everyone on the night was the serenading performance of Fuji music icon, Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as K1 de Ultimate.

Hygienic feeding and accommodation

It's difficult to recall a National Sports Festival where athletes weren't voicing complaints about the food or pointing out shortcomings in their accommodations.

Gateway Games 2024 was arguably the first National Sports Festival where athletes did not lament about the quality of either.

Approximately 10,000 athletes set up camp in the Games Village located within Babcock University in Ilishan-Remo. They relished the peaceful atmosphere of the educational institution, which was temporarily vacant of its usual student population.

Of course, there were dissenting voices about food from Team Edo, but one out of 38 is a far cry from tainting the efforts of those in charge at the Babcock kitchen.

Invited Junior Athletes

Referred to as the 38th participating entity in this year’s National Sports Festival, numerous promising Nigerian youth had the opportunity to engage in high-level competition through the Invited Junior Athlete program organized by the National Sports Commission.

Numbering about 100 athletes, the IJA were former champions in different sports at the last National Youth Games, including the male and female national U-17 football team.

The chaps gave a good account of themselves with 18 medals consisting of two gold, which were won by 14-year-old Amarachi Chijioke in the women’s 45kg weightlifting event. They also had nine silver and 11 bronze medals, finishing 18th on the medals table.

Inspiring stories of athletes

From the mother and daughter who won medals for Lagos State in weightlifting, to the husband and wife who claimed multiple shooting medals for Delta State, the Gateway Games 2024 didn’t fail to deliver rousing stories about what athletes go through to win laurels.

In the mother and daughter case, Ronke Olarinoye had quit weightlifting for about 11 years, making her return this year with a gold in the women’s 45kg snatch while her 15-year-old daughter, Florence Olarinoye, in her second NSF, upgraded from bronze to silver in the women’s 59kg clean and jerk.

Football final in Abeokuta

All the football matches of the 2024 NSF were scheduled to be played at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne.

Perhaps triggered by the thought of having a new artificial turf at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta, the organisers announced the venue change and it proved to be a masterstroke.

Following Team Delta's thrilling victory over the Invited Junior Athletes in the women’s final via a nail-biting penalty shootout, Team Ogun faced off against Team Kwara in front of a full house at the 10,000-seat arena. The event also attracted Governor Dapo Abiodun as one of the spectators.

In the concluding game, a total of five goals were scored, with four coming in the initial half. This allowed Team Ogun to conclude the thrilling evening with a decisive 4-1 victory.

There isn't an actual time-based update for the medal table.

Over time, a major gap in digital infrastructure has made it difficult to have real-time game updates and medal table updates at the National Sports Festival. Although Gateway Games 2024 took the step to solve the problem, the result still left a lot to be desired in the 21st century.

Through a specialized website and mobile app, the medals table typically received updates at least two times daily; however, these updates often occurred after the fact since numerous countries submitted their medal counts well ahead of time—sometimes taking nearly 24 hours for this information to appear online.

Understandably, the medals padding that rocked the 2022 edition in Delta State put the MOC on its toes, and journalists were also advised to run only with the official medals count.

In the end, Ogun State hosts faced accusations as well when they moved up from third to second place in the final medal tally, despite the delays occurring even during the closing ceremony.

Commuting and competing

One of the easy pointers to some below-par performers from athletes was the distance they had to cover by road from the games village at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, to the various venues of events, especially in Abeokuta.

Although the journey is barely an hour and a half, they have to beat the time by waking up very early in the morning to get to the venues of their events before 9:00 am, and there was no guarantee of returning to their hostels by 9:00 pm as most games find it difficult to even end by 6:00 pm.

That punishing routine left the athletes with less than 12 hours to themselves, having shared the other 12 hours between commuting and competing.

Biased officiating

Different coaches, particularly in ball games voiced concerns about biased refereeing, especially in favour of the hosts, Ogun. According to the coaches, coming up against the hosts was a nightmare, due to the intimidating crowd and perceived bias towards them by the referees.

Rivers State women’s volleyball coach, Ibrahim Adamu, didn’t mince words when his team lost a game against the hosts in the group phase.

“Playing the hosts wasn’t easy, and they still played well. I keep telling people, the syndrome of hosting and winning must stop. They played well. The officiating was superb in the first three sets, but after that, I don’t know what happened. With a senior and international ref, I expected something better.”

It wasn’t just about ball games. Allegations of unfair officiating rang across the venues; from the boxing ring to the mats of martial arts.

No Torch of Unity during the opening ceremony

A key traditional element of the opening ceremony was missing. The opening ceremony of the games ended without the Torch of Unity being lit at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena.

Lighting the torch is like a ritual to mark the commencement of the games. From what our correspondent gathered, the ceremony was supposed to be performed by six legendary athletes, representing the six geo-political zones of the country. British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua was named as the final torch bearer that ought to light the cauldron.

Following the inauguration ceremony, the flame illuminated twice: once at the finale of the men's football match and again during the conclusion of the event.

Power outage during the men’s 10,000-meter race finale

While power outages at stadiums may be nothing new, many tend to overlook that they often bring negative consequences, particularly when occurring in Nigeria.

Sadly, the Gateway Games 2024 were not exempt from this issue when the MKO Abiola Sports Arena lost power halfway through the men’s 10,000m final on Saturday, May 24.

Francis James from Plateau State emerged victorious in the race with a finishing time of 30:36:50. However, the long-distance runner mentioned that an unforeseen power outage near the end considerably disturbed his pace and prevented him from achieving a substantially quicker result.

The Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, attributed the power failure to a technical issue.

Demonstrations over unpaid stipends shake host communities

It might have been due to Governor Abiodun’s pledge and the evident wealth displayed during the event, but spotting an upset athlete from Ogun State seemed far-fetched. However, the fortunes of the host state changed dramatically on the second-to-last day of the sporting carnival when their participants staged a lockdown at the games village as part of their demonstration.

The athletes asserted that the state had not provided their camp allowance, which led to them barricading the entrance to the games village for more than seven hours. This delay caused events to commence tardily and extend well into the evening.

After verifying the receipt of the N50,000 pledged by Governor Dapo Abiodun and an additional N140,000 as their festival stipend—though they maintained that the stipend should have been N210,000, equating to N15,000 for each of the 14 days—they concluded the demonstration.

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