About 10,000 student athletes from 136 Universities are expected to participate in the forthcoming 26th edition of Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) Games to be hosted by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) from March 16 – 26, 2022.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe, disclosed the new date yesterday in Lagos during a press conference on the 2022 NUGA Games.
But for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Games would have taken place in 2020.
Professor Ogundipe, however, disclosed that about 10,000 student athletes would compete in 17 sporting events including football, volleyball, basketball, handball, lawn tennis, swimming, jockey, cricket, taekwondo, judo, athletics, karate, chess, squash badminton and boxing.
According to the Vice Chancellor, sports have always been a centripetal force, uniting the nation even when other forces including ethnic, linguistic and religious differences, political persuasion and other socio-cultural barriers strain its unity.
UNILAG had won the hosting right after defeating the University of Jos in a keenly contested bid with 76 points to 66 points.
To make the 26th edition of NUGA Games a memorable one, Ogundipe disclosed that the university’s sporting facilities are currently undergoing massive renovation and reconstruction to international standards to enable athletes to perform optimally at the UNILAG-NUGA Games.
The Vice Chancellor also assured of maximum security as he said about 1,000 CCTV cameras would be installed at the Yaba and Idi-Araba campuses of the university.
