King’s College CBN-sponsored sports pavilion begs for help

PRINCIPAL, King’s College, Lagos, Otunba Dele Olapeju, has decried the sorry state of the CBN-sponsored sports pavilion at the college, urging well-meaning Nigerians to assist the school in completing the edifice.

   In his opening remarks at the 95th yearly inter-house sports competition of the college, Olapeju recalled that the 2010 edition of the sports festival was postponed from February to March at the instance of the executive of the King’s College Old Boys Association, who then pledged to complete the pavilion.

  “Today, the sports pavilion remains an abandoned project, which begs for completion in order to redeem its unsightly disposition. It is my hope that all patriots would rise up to the occasion and assist in completing this important edifice. We are also calling on all stakeholders to assist the college by donating generously to our Sports Endowment Fund,” he pleaded.

  Olapeju disclosed that the school decided to make the sports meet a yearly ritual owing to the importance of sports in the contemporary world, adding, “It is a tradition, sports and academics are entwined, and they go together from the tradition of Kings College. When I came in, with due modesty, there was a lull in activities, but being a Kings Sportsman my first inter house sports was when I raised some sports ambassadors for the college. 

    “Two of my boys are MTN scholars in United States; through football MTN sponsored them for a five-year degree programme in America. In fact, one of them, in the second week he got to that school became a member of the school team. What you call a King’s man is someone who is able to do well academically, someone with good character. The three domains in education put together make a total man. If you are good in sports and you don’t have good character you become an embarrassment to the nation.”

   Charging the competitors to engage in healthy rivalry as they have always done, he urged politicians to learn that competition is not a duel or warfare. “If you are losing, lose gallantly, if you are winning, win with humility,” he advised them.