With less than a month to the 21st edition of the National Sports Festival also known as Delta 2022, traditional sports stakeholders are battling frantically to have their sporting events reinstated in the biennial games.
Although after a series of protests in Lagos, para-sports was returned to the National Sports Festival (NSF) after but traditional sports which was part of the 20th edition of the festival in Benin City, Edo State, is presently out in the cold.
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After the Traditional Sports Federation was inaugurated in 1993, it first featured demonstration events at the 1996 NSF which was staged in Makurdi, the Benue State capital. Traditional sports then made a giant leap to become a medal scoring event at the 1998 NSF which was held in Owerri, the capital of Imo State.
Since then, traditional sports has been an integral part of the National Sports Festival with five prominent events namely Abula, Dambe (traditional boxing), Langa, Ayo (traditional chess) and Kokowa (traditional wrestling).
While langa and dambe are well entrenched in the northern part of the country, traditional sports like ayo, abula and kokowa are quite popular among people of the south-east, south-west and south-south.
However, for reasons which even the present leadership of the Traditional Sport Federation is trying to figure out, traditional sports has been excluded from the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Asaba.
Efforts to get the Ministry of Sports to explain why traditional sports has been removed from the next NSF almost proved abortive but an aide of the sports minister who said he was not permitted to speak on the matter told our reporter on condition of anonymity that the sports authorities had decided that only sports in which Nigeria has comparative advantage in international competitions would feature at the games in Asaba.
This shocking decision by the ministry of sports is no doubt causing sleepless nights among traditional sports stakeholders who are not ready to resign to fate. Trust Sports’ investigations revealed that they are already exploring all available means to return traditional sports to the festival.
Speaking to Trust Sports, the president of the Traditional Sports Federation, Hon. Agbadabina Olomo Perekiye, said his federation had written save our soul (SOS) letters to all the relevant authorities in the land, asking them to come to the rescue of traditional sports.
He said “When it came to our attention that traditional sports had been excluded from the National Sports Festival, we immediately wrote to the Minister of Sports, the Permanent Secretary and State Directors of Sports. We forwarded the same letter to the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chairmen of sports committees in the National Assembly and other relevant bodies to further project our plight.”
Perekiye lamented that so many days after the letters were submitted and duly acknowledged, there was no positive response from the Federal Ministry of Sports. While appealing to the sports ministry to have a change of mind, he said all other sports being practised in the country are alien to Nigerians so nothing should be done to kill the traditional sports that are rooted in the cultures and traditions of the people.
“Well, like you mentioned earlier, every other sport in the National Sports Festival is alien to us. Traditional sports are the only ones that are indigenous to us. Instead of developing and exporting our sports, we are rather trying to relegate or kill our own to uplift other peoples’ sports.
“I don’t think it is in tandem with the spirit of youth development. So many youths are employed through traditional sports. Therefore, if traditional sports are allowed to die, it will affect almost every family in Nigeria. Traditional sports athletes are employees of the different state sports councils. They must not be made to lose their jobs,” he pleaded.
Speaking in the same vein, a founding member of the Traditional Sports Federation, Elias Yusuf, said any National Sports Festival without indigenous sports will remain incomplete. According to him, even the All African Games is not complete due to the absence of traditional sports.
He said “During the 2003 All Africa Games in Abuja, our slogan was that ‘All Africa Games is incomplete without traditional sports’. The same thing applies to the National Sports Festival. Any NSF that excludes traditional sports is incomplete.
“Traditional sports are the sons of the soil. We are the indigenous people. All over the world, countries have their indigenous sports that are always included in their programmes. Events like running, jumping, throwing and skipping in athletics originated from the people of Greece from where the Olympic Games started. These countries developed their indigenous sports and today, we want to dump our own to concentrate on what we imported.”
Yusuf, therefore, submitted that instead of removing traditional sports, it should be made compulsory for every state that wants to participate in the National Sports Festival. For him, it has to be, no traditional sports, no National Sports Festival.
“My appeal is that they should please make traditional sports compulsory for all states. If you want to register for the festival, you must register for at least two traditional sports, that is, one individual event and one team event. However, if you decide to register for all five events, that will be fantastic. We must do everything possible to develop our indigenous sports,” said Yusuf.
The National Coach of Kokowa, Anthony Jerome Kyodulah, also called on the ministry of sports to as a matter of urgency, reconsider its decision on traditional sports because excluding it from the National Sports Festival will cause more harm than good to its participants.
“It is highly disappointing because we are good at traditional wrestling. I also feel disappointed that the sports minister is inviting other African countries that are strong in traditional sports to come and feature in our NSF but he wants to exclude our own traditional sports.
“I don’t want to put the whole blame on the sports minister. Our federation appears to have played into the hands of the sports ministry. Maybe, the ministry is thinking that we are not serious-minded people. I don’t think the minister is against the existence and propagation of traditional sports.
“I am, therefore, appealing to the minister to have a rethink. The NSF will not be complete without our indigenous sports. As much as we are taking part in sports that were imported, we must not neglect our indigenous sports. These sports also reflect our ways of life,” said coach Kyodulah.
On his part, the General Secretary of Traditional Sports Federation, Shehu Ishiaku Guti, said in as much as he understands the pain of the aggrieved stakeholders, as a staff of the sports ministry, he can neither question nor attempt to contradict any decision taken by his minister.
He, however, said the federation should continue to discuss with the sports ministry on the need to return traditional sports to the NSF. “The National Sports Festival is a unity game. Secondly, traditional sports cut across the whole country.
“Other countries are promoting their indigenous sports like karate, kung-fu, Judo, taekwondo and a host of others so why shouldn’t we encourage our own? We have to promote our traditional sports using the National Sports Festival,” said Guti.
Meanwhile, at the time of press, the relevant stakeholders, unanimous in their submission that the exclusion of traditional sports from the National Sports Festival (NSF) and the National Youth Games (NYG), would spell doom for the teeming youths of the country were making desperate efforts to convince the sports ministry to reverse its decision.
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