Sports
ASUU Strike Threatens NUGA Games
The possibility of staging
the 24th Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Games will be based on ending the three-month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) within the next one week.
NUGA council member, Cecilia Arinye disclosed this to newsmen last Thursday on telephone, after the end of a one-day council meeting held at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.
The games had originally been scheduled to hold between October 3 and October 13 at the OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Arinye, who is also the NUGA Zone F Co-coordinator, comprising the universities in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States, said that the one-day meeting was to determine the possibility of the Games vis-à-vis the ongoing ASUU strike.
The co-coordinator, who is also the Director of Sports at the University of Lagos, said that the council expressed hopelessness at the situation, noting that the meeting only considered the best options.
“The possibility of staging the event will be based on a possible end to the three-month old ASUU strike within the next one week.
“The meeting’s deliberations have been subjected to permutations and despondency, considering the available time and the ongoing industrial face-off between university teachers and the Federal Government,” Arinye said.
According to Arinye, the host university is ready for the games, having put in place structures and sporting facilities for the event.
“Athletes who are the actors in the competition are at home, they are not on campus and so, it’s impossible to stage the event without them,” she said.
Arinye urged the government to save the sporting careers of the student athletes, whom she said, had hoped to use the competition to advance their prospects in life by resolving the impasse.
“Any possible shift in date now will further dampen the athletes’ spirit,’’ she added.
The Tidesport reports that the 2013 biennial Games had earlier suffered a postponement in June.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor