National Sports Festival (NSF)

The National Sports Festival was conceived as a socio-psychological elixir to bond the the Nigerian Nation which was traumatized by civil war in the late 60s. Not until the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, conscious effort had never been made to have an all inclusive National Multi-Sports competition by way of a festival. Rather, what we have had since the days of the Empire Day Celebrations in Niger, were selected athletics in Nigeria, where selected athletics and other games organized as one-sport or sartorial competitions by Schools and/or organizations. Among these were the Grier cup, Manuwa I. Adebayo Cups, Principal Cup, All Nigerian Open Athlete Champions LAWNA Games, etc.

To arrest the drift towards inter-tribal issues occasioned by the 1967-70 Civil War and most essentially, to checkmate the declining standards of Nigerian sports, the Federal Government introduced a biennia multi-sports competition involving all the then 12 States of the Federation, now commonly referred to as the National Sports Festival. Perhaps, it could be arguably insinuated that the Sports Festival was one of the bye products of the 3Rs of (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement) enunciated as a way of reuniting the country; emphazised and amongst youths. The founding fathers had the twin objectives of:

1. Promoting mass participation in amateur sports from the grassroots level throughout the country with a view to discovering hidden talents.
2. Promoting healthy and keen competition amongst the competitors and states under a climate of sportsmanship and friendly interaction, thereby enhancing and strengthening unity.

With these objectives in mind, the body saddled with the responsibility of actualizing this national policy under Dr. Jerry Enyeazu (who was then the National Director of Sports) got working and came up with the framework of organizing the first National Sports Festival. Case studies of similar programmes in some countries like East Germany and others were undertaken with a view to adapting relevant modalities to the Nigerian situation for nation-wide acceptance. Indeed, the festival is said to have been modeled after the German "Spatakiad Games" where youths gathered every 2 years to compete against themselves.

The Games Festival actually started in 1973 till date, excepts in 1983, 1987, 1993 and 1995, the festival has been religiously held biennially as a multi-sports festival. The National Sports Festival has become a veritable instrument for National Unity, cohesion, peace, mutual understanding, friendship, cross-cultural affiliation as well as other positive values.

SPORTS FOR THE FESTIVAL

1. A maximum of 25 sports features at the Festival (20 compulsory and 5 optional).  This is in line with practices obtainable in the organisation of major international games i.e. Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Continental Games, etc, where sports are selected based on a laid down criteria.  It is also to reduce the burden of hosting, organizing and participating in the Festival which is now becoming too expensive. 
2. The compulsory sports were selected based on the following criteria:

• Popularity.
• State entries in the sports in previous Festivals.
• Standard of Nigeria participation in the sport.
• Development of indigenous sports.

a.      Compulsory Sports:

                                       1.            Athletics

                                       2.            Badminton

                                       3.            Basketball

                                       4.            Boxing

                                       5.            Chess

                                       6.            Cycling

                                       7.            Football

                                       8.            Gymnastics

                                       9.            Handball

                                   10.            Hockey

                                   11.            Judo

                                   12.            Special Sports

                                   13.            Swimming

                                   14.            Table Tennis

                                   15.            Taekwondo

                                   16.            Tennis

                                   17.            Trado-Sports (Abula, Ayo, Langa, Kokowa and Dambe)

                                   18.            Volleyball

                                   19.            Weightlifting

                                   20.            Wrestling

b.      List of Optional Sports

1. Baseball/Softball
2. Cricket
3. Golf
4. Karate
5. Shooting
6. Squash
7. Scrabble
8. Para-Soccer
9. Darts
10. Fives
11. Rugby
12. Rowing/Yachting
13. Kung-Fu
14. Kickboxing
15. Deaf Sports
1. The Host State is at liberty to select 5 sports out of the 15 optional sports to make up the 25 sports to feature at a Festival.
2. For a sport to score in a particular NSF, a minimum of 9 (nine) States must enter and participate. For an event to score, a minimum of 5 (five) States must enter and participate. In the case of team sport where eliminations had taken place, a minimum of 6 teams must enter and participate for the sport to score.