Lagos Open Tennis Championship tournament director, Wale Oladunjoye has advocated a situation whereby the federal government remains permanent sponsor of the National Sports festival, in order to make it a regular feature in the country.
Sports247.ng reports that Oladunjoye is of a view that seeing the festival hold every two years, as proposed by the sports ministry, would only be a reality with full government funding.
Oladunjoye expressed concerns over the future of the festival, and stressed that it is up to the federal government to ensure that objectives of the competition are sustained.
Oladunjoye declared: “We have to commend the sports ministry and the states that came for the festival in Abuja.
“The 19th edition was coming after a long wait on Cross River State Government to host the event. This is not the best and we should not let this occur again.
“No state is buoyant enough to shoulder the responsibility of hosting the festival alone considering the economic situation of the country and other commitments which the state governments must attend to.
“This is the reason I believe the Federal Government, through the sports ministry, should assist any state hosting the festival in the future. It should be the primary responsibility of the Federal Government.”
