NIGERIA. Lagos State: On Saturday, the 2022 Nigeria Universities Games (NUGA) began at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The competition, now in its 26th year, is held by UNILAG and has over 75 tertiary institutions competing in 16 distinct events.
Professor Stephen Hamafyelto, the NUGA President, advised the participants to embrace the spirit of unity, peace, togetherness, and cooperation during the flag-off ceremony at the UNILAG sports facility.
Hamafyelto went on to say that competitions like this are meant to bring students together in order to promote peaceful coexistence.
“Therefore, there is a need for every athlete to play along with the aim of which the competition is organized to achieve its set goals,” Hamafyelto added.
Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, expressed his joy in holding NUGA after it was last organized seven years ago.
“I and the entire management of UNILAG are very happy to be the host of this year’s mouthwatering gathering of promising and intellectual student-athletes. NUGA was last held seven years ago at the University of Portharcourt and today it is in UNILAG,” Ogundipe said.
Ogundipe, on the other hand, highlighted that, despite Nigeria’s diverse ethnic groups, peace and harmony must be given a chance to flourish.
The Nigerian Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, stated in his presentation that NUGA will be utilized to pick participants for the upcoming World Universities Games in July and Commonwealth Games in June this year.
Dare, as a result, pushed all of the competitors to give it their all and play well in order to have a chance of getting chosen, as only the best will be chosen.
The events
Football, athletics, badminton, hockey, chess, karate, tennis, volleyball, basketball, and boxing are among the events to be played.
NUGA is an avenue for Nigerian students across different tertiary institutions in the country to use one umbrella to compete in different sporting events.
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