The University of Lagos on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to host the 26th edition of the Nigerian University Games (NUGA) in 2019.
The University would be hosting the competition 20 years after, assuring that it was prepared to make the 2019 games much more memorable.
Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe who received the hosting flag from the Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) President at the Senate Chambers assured that the university would spare no efforts to organize a befitting game.
It would be recalled that UNILAG last year competed for the hosting right with the University of Jos during the 2017 games hosted by the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi and won.
According to the VC, the 2019 games would be the mother of all NUGA editions.
He said the sports facilities in the university would be upgraded to international standards for students and young athletes to showcase their talents.
“NUGA, you have not made a mistake by choosing UNILAG. We will do our best to host the best games ever. We will prepare our students for the games”, he said.
He recalled that the university recently participated in the West African University Games (WAUG) held at the University of Port Harcourt and came second, adding that the university looked forward to hosting the WAUG in the nearest future.
President of NUGA, Prof. Stephen Hamafyelto said the decision to host the games in the university was to “discover, uncover and recover talents in UNILAG”.
According to him, the university game is imperative to harvest as much talents as possible for the nation and the world university games.
This, he said, explains why NUGA has been consistent with the games, stressing that universities remain the only hope for the country to regain its place in global sports arena.
He tasked the university to host the best games with state of the art facilities, saying, “We have confidence in the university because it has the capacity and the clout. We are tired of hosting the games from borrowed facilities. We hope to see some upgrade of facilities in the university; the best facilities comparable to what we see outside the country”.
Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and President of the University of Lagos Alumni Association, Dr. John Momoh assured that the university would host a very successful game.
