MANY RIVERS TO CROSS AS LAGOS VOWS TO SHATTER RECORDS

By NBF News

By Tony Ubani
AS Nigerians come to terms with the spectacular opening ceremony of the 17th National Sports Festival, many are still heaping praise on Governor Rotimi Amaechi for raising the bar of the festival.

The colourful opening ceremony set tongues wagging with many describing it as the best ever sports festival opening ceremony. The cultural displays and the fireworks were heart-thumping and many could not believe that such grandiose ceremony could come from a sports festival that had been reduced to inter-house sports by many states.

And with such spectacle, questions are also being asked if Lagos State, the next host of the Festival could match what Rivers. did President Jonathan Goodluck who also raised the ante of the Festival with prizes of N20 million, N15 million and N10 million to the winners, runners-up and the third placed winners also acknowledged that Rivers State had set standards.

'I must admit that what we have seen here in Rivers are world class facilities and indeed they are very pleasing to behold'.

Apparently aware of the big challenge at hand as next host, Chairman of Lagos State Sports Council, Honourable Agboola Dabri said that said that people should not panic.

'I must first of all commend Rivers for the spectacular opening ceremony. It remains the best we have seen in the history of the National Sports Festival. They have indeed blown our minds with the opening and the facilities that we have seen. However, don't forget that we are Lagos, the Centre of excellence. What that means is that we are going to surpass whatever  has been set by Rivers.

We are blessed to have a Sports-loving Governor. Most of us are here to see and report back to him. And the first thing we shall  recommend is to set up a Local Organising Committee, LOC, that will move into action immediately. Like we normally say, there is no shaking', Agboola said.

He also informed that Lagos intends to involve private sector with the festival noting that Team Lagos would not be ignored in the process'.