NAN-S-8
Games
By Victor Okoye
Abuja, Dec. 6, 2016 (NAN) Tosin Oshokoya, the Sports Manager, Ministry of Information and Culture Sports Club, on Tuesday in Abuja, faulted the organisational standard of the Federation of Public Service Games (FEPSGA).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 35th edition of FEPSGA, which began on Nov. 23 ended on Dec. 4.
Oshokoya, who spoke to NAN, faulted the standard of the Games, adding that a lot still needed to be done to transform it into the “Olympics of the Civil Service Dream’’.
“My general view is that the Games are not improving in terms of organisation. There are still a lot of things the federation has got to look into.
“I must confess that the standard of the Games have kept dropping every year as things have not really improved the way they should.
“You can’t believe that up till now, as we speak, FEPSGA has no sponsorship of any sort.
“What stops us from partnering with financial institutions like the banks or telecommunication organisations such as MTN, Glo, Etisalat and so on?
“I think the reason is simply because our leaders in FEPSGA are not proactive enough to be able to see beyond what they are getting from the state governments as well as the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“There is still a lot of work to do if we hope to take FEPSGA to an enviable height and to transform it into the `Civil Service Olympics’ of our dreams,’’ he said.
Oshokoya, however, noted that there were some positives emanating from this year’s Games, especially in participation of athletes and the discovery of new talents.
“This year’s Games were remarkable in the sense that so many athletes participated in spite of the recession and paucity of funds which affected almost on all the ministries and parastatals in the country.
“Also, notable is that those athletes who were traditional medallists, especially in the indoor games couldn’t mount the podium this year because of the emergence of young and new talents.
“For instance, our own athlete in chess, who was always winning medals for the ministry, didn’t get to win anything this year, so also in scrabble (male and female category).
“However, we won bronze in the doubles and mixed doubles in the sports they were applicable like Tennis.
“Like someone rightly said, the best three players in scrabble from this year’s games could even be selected to represent the country in international competitions and they will do very well,’’ he said.
On the performance of the ministry’s athletes in the Games, the sports manager noted that given the circumstances, the athletes did very well.
“You know how we got here; no money, no motivation of any sort, so much crisis in the ministry and we still came back home with eight medals.
“To me, I think it was a wonderful feat and also in all the events we participated in, we didn’t get knocked out easily; we either got to the finals or semi-finals.
“Maybe, only football didn’t meet up with our expectations, but every other team did very well,’’ he said.
NAN reports that the Ministry of Information and Culture finished the Games with four silver and four bronze medals.
They won silver in Badminton, Swimming (100 m), Squash racket and Tennis, all in the female category.
While the four bronze medals were in Volleyball (female), Tennis (mixed double) and both in the doubles and mixed doubles of the Scrabble event. (NAN)
VO/PDE
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(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)