Alfred Olufemi
Despite past exploits in the sports world, the authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife has announced that none of the team sporting events will be participating in the 2018 edition of the West African University Games (WAUG) championship.
WAUG, the Olympics Games of West Africa students and the most competitive games among West African students, is a two-week events scheduled for 0ctober 31 and the 2018 edition will hold in University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
The university has a vibrant sports culture greatly motivated by an expansive sports centre and having hosted 3 editions of Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) championships in 1970, 1984 and 2013.
According to the Director of the university sports' council, Abu Adamu, in a meeting of all athletes held on Sunday, the team events were dropped as a result of financial constraints.
"We tried our best for our athletes to participate as some of the teams were earlier informed that they will be representing the school in UNIPORT and they've been training rigorously. But along the line, when we submitted our budget, the school cannot afford about 15 million naira to sponsor the athletes."
"I have met with the coaches and we have decided to drop all the team sports because the money from the school can only cater for 40 athletes out of the individual sports like Athletics, Badminton, Swimming, Tennis.."
The team events that qualified for the event as a result of their performance in the last NUGA games played in Makurdi, which were eventually dropped, include; Basketball (female), Handball (male), Handball (female), Volleyball (male) and football (male) teams.
"The teams have been dropped and there's nothing anyone can do about it," Mr. Abu echoed.
OAU KILONSHELE gathered that the school initially budgeted for over 100 athletes and has registered their details for the event but yet to conclude some athletes' registration for the event as each individual is expected to pay 200 USD, which is equivalent to 61,200 naira.
The Director of sports then apologized to the affected teams and promised that the university will compensate them and ensure that they participate in forthcoming sporting competitions.
It should be recalled that reported that sixty universities have so far registered for the 14th West Africa University Games (WAUG).
Reginald Ogali, a professor and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the games, told journalists on Monday in Port Harcourt that 85 universities would compete in 15 different events.
“The events are athletics, swimming, judo, tennis, badminton, table tennis, squash and chess. Others are football, javelin, volleyball, handball, basketball, Hockey and cricket."
Students question the effect of sports levy.
Meanwhile, the news of denying the OAU team events from participating in WAUG because of financial constraints has witnessed reactions from students, who expressed unhappiness about the decision.
Jerry Adeoye, a former lawn tennis captain and a recent graduate of the university, while addressing the athletes on a platform owing to the decision taken by the university, urged the athletes to remain resolute and fight for their rights.
"Our sport levy is not for funding research, it is for sport. We are not Olympic champions, we are students who have sacrificed our time, money, blood, sweat, comfort for OAU."
"I remember my swear and sweat, despite being an engineering undergraduate. All for OAU! " He exclaimed on Monday.
Another athlete, Obuseh Prince, narrated how he was training rigorously for WAUG even after being hospitalized for two weeks.
"I carried a bandage of shame. and they still wore me a jersey for a friendly match of which I played full time. Sacrifices that were hidden in the open."
Also, in an interview with our correspondent, one of the athletes that plays hand ball , Akeem Lasisi, stated that the university has no excuse for not sponsoring her athletes because students pay for sports levy every session.
According to Mr. Lasisi, the sports levy is enough to take care of the international competition, which is the most expensive and comes up once in every four years.
"Why will they deny students the opportunity, which comes just once in four years, when the sports levy is more than enough to cover the expenses?"
"There was no major tournament last session and no sport facility was renovated."
In an analysis done by this media outfit, asides all other IGRs, thirty million naira is being remitted to the school account every session as the 30,000 students (according to the statistics provided on the school website) pay a mandatory sum of one thousand naira as sports' levy each every academic session.
OAU KILONSHELE also confirmed that no renovation exercise has been carried out on most of the sporting facilities in the past one year.
In a visit to the school's swimming pool, our reporter discovered that the pool facility has been abandoned for over a year because the dirty water has not been replaced.
One of the swimmers, Muhammed Olayinka, made it known that the poor condition of the standard size pool has affected her training as she and other teammates currently train in a sub standard swimming pool facility situated at the staff club area of the school, after several renovation pleas to the university.
"The swimming team now train in Staff Club. It doesn't make sense since there's a swimming pool facility available in the school," She told this newspaper.
However, in reaction to the students' complaints, Mr. Abu stated that the sports' council has also pushed a similar arguments at several meetings with the university management and he assured that everything will get better.
Also, he outlined that the appointment of a new Bursar for the university, Samson Ayansina, done in May, is one of the laudable steps taken by the Eyitope Ogunbodede-led administration to help sports development.
"The new bursar has told us to present our budget for 2019, which we've done and will yield results in due time. But unfortunately, WAUG didn't fall in the 2019 budget because it's a 2018 event," Mr. Abu told OAU KILONSHELE.
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