Who we are:
Ogun State Development Advocacy Group (ODA-G) is an advocacy organisation with a bias for good governance, accountability and transparency in governance. We are focused on development initiatives that have a direct positive impact on the lives of the citizens. ODA-G represents the unmistakable voice of the people in their search for good lives, by calling government’s attention to areas where they might have deliberately or innocently neglected with a view to making the political players and actors come alive to their responsibilities.
In this edition, we shall be looking at Ogun State sports sector as a first call. And specifically to look at the proposed National Sports Festival which has been advertised and scheduled to hold between the 6th to the 30th of May, 2025 in Ogun State.
We are looking at sports, sporting events as an economic activity with the sole purposes of creating employment, addressing social security issues by keeping the youth engaged, health and physical fitness, economic drivers by opening up the state for investment and public relations to project a State and showcasing its diverse culture and facilities to visitors.
History
The National Sports Festival has been held in Nigeria since 1973 and Ogun State hosted the 15th edition in 2006 with stadia built in all the geopolitical zones of the state: Sagamu, Ilaro, and Ijebu Ode, while the existing MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta was equally renovated to world standard. Likewise, the Alake Sporting Centre in Ijeja Abeokuta and the Sports facilities of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in Abeokuta were renovated. The Media Village for the Festival was also built at OGTV on Ajebo Road. The Games was used as a catalyst to renovate several school hostels which served as accommodations and camps for different state contingents to the games. In fact, no fewer than 15 schools which were used as camps for the various state contingents were renovated and upgraded to standard with fully fitted facilities and infrastructure. The Games also impacted health facilities as General Hospitals across the state were upgraded to attend to the needs of the event.
The Abeokuta-Siun-Sagamu dualisation project abutting at the famed RIYE (a befitting acronym representing all the four major ethnic configuration of people inhabiting the State- Remo Ijebu, Yewa and Egba) Roundabout was commissioned in March, 2006, a month before the start of the festival. So also was the Oke-Ilewo-Lalubu Road in Abeokuta, as well as roads leading to other venues of the sporting events. All these were to showcase the rich cultural and physical aesthetics of the State to the visitors.
The Games was full of so many attractions which included the Gateway Games Mascot, Gateway Games Beauty Pageant which lightened up and brought so many donors into the fold. The fund raising events were taken to all major cities across the country, from Lagos to Asaba, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Jos etc. Several memorabilia were launched for the Games: corporate jackets, men and women’s wear etc.
The Olumo Rock was completely reconstructed to have an easy, safe and faster route to the top using three major elevator towers, with natural steps apart from the traditional and dangerous old climbing route. A dedicated museum and recreation spots were also added to the complex for visiting/participating team contingent to visit in their free time. Churches and Mosques were not left out in the Games fever, with advocacy to receive visitors on Fridays and Sunday. The security was top notch, with not a single incident of crime within the 14-day fiesta.
A national media centre was created within MKO Abiola Stadium, equipped with modern computers at the time, and fully supported with South West Resource Center – a collaboration IT innovative center sponsored by the US government. Indeed the center incubated the IT Revolution in SW Nigeria, second to none.
A lot of other activities were generated in the build up and during the Games to handle the influx of tourists during the Festival, and it was on record that Ogun State was the first, and perhaps the only, to have declared profit on the very last day of the Games. This underscores the business approach of the then administration in the state.
It is also clear that no state has been able to beat that singular record, especially in the areas of economic empowerment by engaging hundreds of food vendors to cater for the needs of thousands of visitors to the state. Many people arrived at their own juncture of prosperity and there are quite a number of testimonials on this.
Matters Arising
Eighteen years later, Ogun State again has the good fortune to have been granted the hosting rights for yet another Games Festival. With a proposed budget of N11 billion on sports from the State Tax Players money, (unlike the previous hosting, which was largely financed through private sector funds, corporate and individual donations and a declaration of profit openly on the closing day), Ogun State cannot afford to disappoint the world.
Sadly, all signals emanating from the government circle are discomforting. The Festival that was scheduled to be hosted in 2024 has been a year behind schedule. Despite the shift in date, so many of the state’s sporting facilities do not appear ready one month to the scheduled start date. There has been a lack of transparency in the way the budgetary allocations for the Games are being expended; the State government is not talking to the citizens on how much of their money and where they are being spent. Staff of the Ministry of Sports have been kept absolutely in the dark about where and what is going to take place.
This is quite disturbing. The feelers emanating from government circle in Oke Mosan was to the effect that 80 percent of the sporting events might be taking place in a private sporting facilities in Ikenne area of Ogun State, while officials will be accommodated in the hostels of a private university in the Ilishan area of the state; with a handful of events and activities scheduled for Abeokuta, the state capital, and one or two Games scheduled to hold at the Gateway Stadium in Sagamu. Another major town, Ijebu Ode, and none in the Yewa or Ogun West Senatorial District. It would be unfortunate if this turned out to be true at the end of the day.
This has clearly defeated the objective why countries struggle to win the hosting rights of major sporting events globally, that is showcasing the rich culture and economic potentials of the hosting company to attract investors and increase the prosperity of the citizens. It therefore appears that Ogun State might just be hosting a Zonal Inter-House Sports instead of a National Sports Festival as the name really portends.
One would have thought a responsible state government at this time would leverage the existing sports facilities in the state.
It is also thought that it will use the Games as a catalyst to renovate them and turn them into opportunities and economic hubs. One would have thought that a caring state government would use the opportunity that the Festival provides to turn the major towns Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode, Ilaro and Sagamu as hosting venues into cities worth their names through massive infrastructure development. Ogun State now runs a trillion naira annual budget, there should be no excuse for failures, there should be no excuse for not fixing all the major roads where all the athletes and visitors will pass through and leave with a memory that could make them always want to come back.
We use this opportunity to call on the Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, to rise up to his oath of office in the best interest of Ogun State citizens to showcase only that which can sell Ogun State to the world and bring investors and investment. We also call on the Governor to exhibit some level of Integrity and transparency to give regular briefing to the citizens on how much is being spent and where they are being spent. This is the minimum that can give confidence to any honest businessmen/women who are interested in doing business with the state.
. Oyesile is the Director of Programmes of Ogun State Development Advocacy Group (ODA-G).
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