The National Sports Festival (NSF), Nigeria’s biennial multi-sports competition organised by the Federal Government will hold this year, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung has said.
He made the disclosure on Friday in Makurdi at an interactive forum with the executive council of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Benue chapter.
He said that budgetary allocation for the hosting of the sports festival was made this year.
According to Dalung, such festival serves as a development and training event to assist athletes prepare for continental and international meets.
“The NSF is supposed to be an avenue where youths will showcase their skills,” he said.
He noted that the event was also important for Nigeria’s preparations for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, adding that it was now left for the sports ministry to determine where and when it will hold.
“They will ensure that all the facilities for the event were ready before the festival,” he said.
Dalung said the festival was billed to take place in Calabar, the Cross River capital in 2014, but had suffered several postponements.
The festival which began in 1975 in Lagos, involves all indoor and outdoor sports and was originally conceived as a “unifying tool.”
It has as its main purpose, the promotion of peace and cross-cultural affiliation in Nigeria after the Nigerian Civil War in 1970.
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