Cross River shifts 19th National Sports Festival to last quarter 2016

CROSS RIVER State Government has expressed its readiness to host the 19th National Sports Festival by the last quarter of this year.

However, this is subject to the approval of the National Council of Sports (NCS), which is planning to meet with stakeholders next week in Calabar to decide if the state can still continue with its hosting rights or not.

The NCS had earlier fixed November 23 and December 7, 2014 for Cross River to host the festival and later shifted to April 2015 but due to poor finances, logistic challenges and the fact that most states were not ready the festival could not hold.

While paying a courtesy visit on the State House of Assembly on Monday, the Chairman of the State’s Sports Commission, Chief Orok Duke, dropped the hint that the state would be ready to host the National Sports Festival in the last quarter of the year as all effort is on to get things ready.

He gave the assurance that the commission was working assiduously to ensure that every facility for the event was ready before for the fiesta, lamenting that facilities under the commission had suffered neglect for eight years.
Duke, who decried the abandonment of site by contractors handling projects, including sports facilities and office accommodation, also expressed optimism that the new commission as constituted would not rest on its oars in a bid to take sports to greater heights in the state.

He assured the Speaker and other legislators of his preparedness to regenerate the commission, submitting that a developmental programme targeting sports talents at the grassroots would be pursued.

On his part, the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. John Gaul Lebo, gave the assurance that the House will support the State Sports Commission to enable it achieve its mandate.

Lebo maintained that the Assembly was willing to assist the commission to enable it achieve its mandate of reviving and revitalising sports in Cross River, adding that the commission must systematically help to discover and harvest sports talents across the 18 local government areas of the state.

The Speaker, who on behalf of the Assembly urged the Sports Commission to evolve more creative ways of administering sports in the state, said the commission must be reinvented to meet with the changing dynamics of sports administration, inculcating best acceptable practices.

According to the Speaker, “the House of Assembly would be willing to amend any section of the law establishing the commission, no longer in tandem with present times as well as source for additional funding in view of the dwindling revenue of the state”.

Also speaking, the Chairman, House Committee on Information Mr. Nelson Ofem, expressed optimism that the Commission headed by Duke would deliver on its mandate despite challenges, given its composition.

Ofem charged the commission on the development of sports at the grassroots which according to him was a “reservoir of raw talents”.