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By Peter Akinbo.
Ahead of the opening ceremony of the Delta 2022 National Sports Festival, Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, had christened the 21st National Sports Festival the ‘African Olympics.’
The minister stated this during the flag hoisting ceremony of the festival at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, the Delta State capital.
“We have christened this 21st National Sports Festival the African Olympics; the sheer number of 14-15,000 (athletes) is massive; no other country in Africa can command that. No other country in Africa has that number of athletes gathered at a single venue for 10 days and I think this is significant, this is a national event,” Dare said.
But in the course of the festival tagged ‘Delta 2022’, it would soon become evident that Delta State was not fully prepared for the burden of the tag placed on it by the minister, who in his optimism, had deemed the state fit to carry the lofty ambitions of hosting ‘the best festival ever.’
In terms of facilities, Delta built two new indoor sports hall, swimming pool, tartan tracks and shooting range, all within the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, as well as a new hockey pitch described as “the best in Africa” in Okpanam.
Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa also constructed new hostel facilities at the National Youth Service Corps camp at Issele-Uku and in schools within Asaba.
However, sequel to the Games, there had been several reports questioning the state of readiness of Delta to host the event, following ongoing construction works and renovations few days to the opening ceremony.
Before the colourful opening ceremony Wednesday Nov 30, the complaints started rolling in from both athletes and officials.
Osun State Para-table tennis coach Adigun Mutiu expressed his disappointment with the poor camp conditions just few days after the Games kicked off.
“The accommodation is not good enough, we want to have our bath, there is no water, and there is no electricity in the hostel. We didn’t expect to come all the way from Osun and be sleeping with mosquitoes, or that we would lack water to bathe,” Mutiu told our correspondent during the festival.
“For other states that hosted in the past, there were arrangements for transportation around the host state and we expected same or even more from Delta, but it has been ‘find your way’ since we got here.”
On hearing this, our correspondent thus embarked on a mission to check the state of two of the venues athletes were camped in.
Athletes from some of the visiting states were camped at the Old NYSC camp at Itsele-Uku, while Delta athletes stayed at Technical College situated on Federal College Road, Asaba.
It took our correspondent about 45 minutes to get to the Old NYSC camp in Issele-Uku from Asaba, on Saturday Dec 3, same time it took athletes camped there to get to Asaba for their events.
At Issele-Uku, some athletes were outside lying down on their mattresses.
Reason? They took solace outside to escape from the heat in their rooms, due to the number of athletes who allegedly slept in one room and almost all on double bunks, with little or no space for movement around the rooms.
But the bathrooms and toilets were in working order.
Organising Secretary, Gombe State Gymnastics Association, Musa Yaro, said, “The accommodation in Issele-Uku wasn’t conducive because we were congested in a single room. Sometimes, the water ceased and there was no stable electricity in the camp.”
On transportation to Asaba for their events, Yaro added, “Sometimes they brought buses but it was not frequent, and sometimes we sponsored ourselves taking motorcycles or tricycles to the stadium.
“The stadium is far from our camp, about 40km to Asaba. If you had events around 8am, it was tough; you’ll have to wake up, make food, and take it to your athletes. Sometimes it would be too late. There were so many walkovers because of lateness.”
An athlete from Bayelsa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Electricity at the festival was very poor. Some of us could not charge our phones, and our families were unable to reach us.
“Sometimes we didn’t get water throughout the whole day; some would have to leave the hostel to bathe somewhere, while the buckets were not available for us to even fetch water. Some toilets were not working, so, we had to fetch water to flush the toilets. So many things were not satisfactory, especially the lights and water,” the Taekwondo athlete said.
However, an athlete from Zamfara, who identified herself simply as Hannah, didn’t think the camping conditions were as bad as others felt.
She stated during the festival, “Accomodation is a little bit fair, not that bad. We are about 16 or 17 in a room. But in other areas it’s not conducive, especially with the unsteady electric supply. Some athletes stayed outside because of this.
“Water supply was short initially. We used to move far away from our hostel to get water but it became steady.”
Hannah’s next door neighbour Yusuf Usman from Kwara State said that while they had challenges in the beginning, the organisers made adjustments after widespread complaints.
“We faced many challenges when we first came, especially concerning water and light. If they took the light in the morning, we’ll have to wait till night. The toilets are okay, the cleaners did their jobs. The light and water were the main issues, but when we started complaining, they made adjustments, so things improved during the festival,” he said.
The consensus at this point was that Delta State was not ready to host the festival and despite their best efforts, they couldn’t live up to the lofty ambitions they had hoped to achieve.
Former Nigeria long and triple jumper, Bright Ugbama, said he was disappointed with the preparations for the athletic events.
“The preparation is a far-cry from what I experienced as an athlete. I ended my festival career in 2002 and we didn’t see situations whereby it was when where we were coming in to compete, that they start preparing our facilities and where we’ll train and practice for our events,” he said.
Close followers of the event said Delta had a short time-frame to prepare for the national championships, just over a year after Edo hosted it, but Ugbama insisted the festival could have been postponed.
“I believe that if there is not enough time to get set, then there should be a postponement.
“And if it is a must that it should hold, then there should have been early preparations. If I was competing, how would I have been able to take my run-up and get it perfected before my event, especially on the new runway that had no sands in the pit? I am very unhappy about the whole thing,” Ugbama said.
Chairman, Kwara Sports Commission, Bola Magaji, in an interview with sports journalists during the festival, said Delta did not demonstrate the readiness to host the tournament.
“I discussed it with my friends that Delta was not ready for this festival,” he said.
“In the area of facilities, they are not impressive at all; in the area of accommodation, which is most important, they are not ready as well.
“I hope before they consider giving the hosting of festivals out, they should ensure the state is ready in term of facilities. You can imagine the athletes travelling about 50km to venues; most of them are tired, they cannot go back.
“Where they are kept, some of them do not have electricity; they do not have water. It’s so unfortunate,” Magaji said.
A Lagos female Taekwondo athlete at the old NYSC camp added that they had to make personal arrangement to lodge in a hotel following the poor camp conditions.
“There are no sockets in the rooms. The bathrooms are unisex and the male athletes enter them without caution; the exposure is embarrassing. There is not enough water for all of us, and those who enter late can’t have their shower.
“So, we had to get a hotel, it wasn’t provided for us by the Lagos State Government or else, all the Lagos State athletes would be in hotels. The taekwondo athletes contributed and moved to the hotel,” she said.
At the Technical College, Federal College Road, Asaba on Thursday, December 8, our correspondent learnt that although the athletes camp was much closer to competition venue, the hosts athletes were not without their own troubles.
The athletes told our correspondent their hostel was cleaned for the first time since the festival started a day before and that was the reason it looked clean.
Further checks showed all the toilets in the male section of the Technical College were shut.
A wrestler representing Delta State was visibly aggrieved and disappointed at the treatment of the athletes.
He said, “In this hall where we are housed, we have the wrestling team, the kickboxing team, cricket team and the Dambe team, so we have over 60 athletes sleeping in this hall.”
The hall was the biggest of all the hostels for the festival, but the number of occupants made it look small.
“We don’t have a functioning bathroom, the toilets serve as the toilet and bathroom for the about 60 of us here, and that is terrible because that number of athletes have to share just four toilets.
“You can imagine the level of infection that can spread. For the accommodation here, I don’t think it is proper or adequate or comfortable enough for Delta State, the hosts, the champions of the country,” the wrestler added.
“The waste bins were not emptied often, there was a time it was filled to the brim and trash was littered all over. The malaria got very bad in camp, I struggled with it and the medical team did nothing, I had to go out to get treatment.
“Some people had malaria. I know of a girl that had malaria and competed with it, she finished second and I believe if it was not for the malaria, she would have gotten the gold.
“We slept in twos and threes under a mosquito net because some didn’t have, but still they were not sufficient. I believe some who didn’t fall sick in camp might become ill at home and this could deplete all the resources they got from the festival,” he said.
Head Doctor in charge of the NSF, Dr. Anthony Enebe, confirmed that they treated a high number of athletes malaria cases.
“A lot of the athletes came to us displaying symptoms of malaria. I think it is as a result of the change in environment and the weather right now is very humid,” Enebe said.
Speaking further, the wrestler said the food in camp was nothing to write home about. “I didn’t eat the food served in camp. I eat the bread when it comes before I can get food outside, some of the eggs are not well boiled, and the soup also not appealing.
“They didn’t prepare the food here (camp). They prepare the food, package it and send down to us, so, we don’t really have a choice.
“I know a couple of friends who were down with stomach upset because of how bad the food is and everybody had flagyl (stomach drug) in their pockets, and after every meal, you take a pill.
“I have to get food from outside and it’s barely enough, that’s all I spend my allowance on. A plate of food outside is worth over a thousand naira. So, eating that three to four times a day, and that’s higher than my allowance,” he said.
He added that he had to transport himself to and from event venue after the arrangement the organisers of the festival made collapsed, adding that his daily camp allowance was spent on things the organisers should have taken care of.
“The wrestlers were assigned a bus but after the second day, we didn’t see the bus. Every day I go to training, I have to take public transport. The Local Organising Committee should have done better.
“During camping ahead of the festival, an every athlete got N2,500, during the festival, we got N3,500 daily. I am not saying it is too small, but we spent it all on food, medicine and transportation,” he said.
Another athlete representing Delta state who gave only her first name, Ese said, “The accomodation not really bad, but sometimes the issue of water comes up. We need to freshen up when we go out and sometimes there is no water.
“The people feeding us before were not that consistent and what we were given was not what we were expecting but it’s different now. I am okay with the food now,” she said.
A para-athlete from Delta State, who also pleaded anonymity, complained about the accommodation at the Technical College, adding that there was no special care for the para-athletes.
“It’s not comfortable. There is no fan, in the hall and you can’t get fresh air until in the night, around 8pm. We complained in the beginning, but nothing was done. There was no special care for us para-athletes,” he said.
When our correspondent reached out to the Chairman, Delta State Sports Commission, Tonobok Okowa, for his comments on the issues raised by the officials and athletes during the festival, he stated, “Concerning electricity and water, we gave the leaders of various teams the money to purchase fuel for their hostels to deal with electricity and pumping of water but we found out that they were not getting the fuel.”
He added that transportation was provided for all the athletes during the festival.
“Some athletes delayed coming out of their hostels, and after others had left, they started complaining.
“There is time for everything, the buses were there lined up for them and if you missed the first one, you had to wait for another one, so, there is no inadequacy in transportation at all, they just needed to be disciplined.”
In truth, from the first day of the complaints till the last day of competitions at the sports festival, the athletes did say things changed and got better, however, the fact remains that Delta state was not ready to host as things didn’t ‘start to get better’ until the festival had passed the halfway point while some other athletes still had nothing but complaints.