National Sports Festival: Delta 2022 would be super -Okowa

By George Aluo, who was in Benin

Delta state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa (Ekwueme) has pledged that the state would raise the hosting bar of the National Sports Festival when the nation’s athletes converge in Asaba next year.

Okowa who spoke through his commissioner, Patrick Ukah in Benin Wednesday night after the state was announced as the next host of the bi-annual festival said Delta would at home confirm that she is the home of sports in the country.

Delta State had fought off competition from Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, Kano and Kaduna to get the hosting right.

Governor Okowa also congratulated Team Delta for retaining the National Sports Festival trophy after garnering 158 gold, 116 silver and 110 bronze medals to beat host Team Edo which won 129 gold, 104 silver and 108 bronze medals.

Ukah described Team Delta’s triumph in Benin as a fallout of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s consistent investment in sports from the grassroots.

He noted that Delta achieved the feat in spite of the absence of Team Delta’s elite athletes. He said this was possible because Governor Okowa had made sports compulsory in the Basic and Secondary Schools in the state.

The Basic and Secondary Education Commissioner said that the feat of the young Athletes  goes to show that Team Delta would remain at the top of Nigerian Sports for a long time.

He congratulated the Team for making Deltans proud saying that it was the first time that the State will win a National Sports Festival that was hosted in the South-South zone.