Edo 2020, how prepared is Edo state?

I want to say without any fear of contradiction that we are very prepared. But you see, as an activity involving human beings, it is impossible to say we are 100% ready. It will be as if we are overrating ourselves. It is, however, safe to say we are 95% ready and in a couple of days, the remaining 5% will be done and dusted.

We have taken care of both infrastructure and human capacity requirements to ensure that we have a very successful sports festival. We have taken care of issues that bother on logistics, the facilities that will host the events, taking care of issues that bother on security, accommodation and all those other aspects concerning the games have all been tied up all the loose ends.

Recently, there was fear of Coronavirus because of what happened in Lagos, we have also set up a very extensive protocol to ensure that the virus scare doesn’t have any impact on the games.

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How have you motivated the athletes?

The athletes are sufficiently motivated. I know that in this part of the world, usually, motivation is directly proportional to financial motivation, but we believe that this event is beyond that.

The athletes representing their state, first and foremost, are in a place of honour because not every person who lives gets the chance to represent his state in his lifetime. Having said that, we will make sure all other forms of motivation are put together to ensure that the athletes have a decent place to prepare for the festival and to ensure they are also ready emotionally and psychologically to do well in the events.

Edo is noted for culture and tradition which is expected to be showcased during the festival. What kind of Opening Ceremony are we expecting?

The Opening Ceremony will be a cantata! We are expecting a very elaborate Opening Ceremony with the cultural wealth and traditional endowments of the state in flamboyant display. We are going beyond what we have in Edo in terms of culture, arts, and entertainment because it is a national festival.

We are going to draw from the rich culture of all parts of Nigeria: Kano, Sokoto, Lagos, from everywhere. The Opening Ceremony will reflect Nigeria’s diverse cultural heritage. We are also thinking out of the box to go beyond the shores of Nigeria to make it a spectacle.

Most people host to win, they even say it. Is that the mood here?

Yes, that is the mood. We are hosting to win but not in the sense some people apply it. Some people say that and follow it up by going from state to state to buy athletes from other states, hoodwinking people who have nothing to do with their states to come and represent them. That is not the approach we are using.

Our own host to win approach is such that we have gone down to the grassroots to harvest talents, managed and honed their skills to the extent that they can put up excellent showing that would win the competition at the end.

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Ahead of this sports festival, we organised our own Edo state sports festival where we drew athletes from all the 18 local governments in the state. From the remotest parts of this state, we called people to come and compete.

What we discovered was shocking as some established athletes in the state were defeated by some villagers who represented their LGAs.We insisted that your primary criteria for qualification is your performance. We discovered that some athletes who were highly decorated were taken down by some unknown people who came from the villages. As a result, we discovered young, confident talents. We are very sure that in the end, we will do well in the competition.

You talked about young, unknown athletes upstaging established stars. Will Edo be surprised if they don’t win the festival?

We don’t want to win inordinately without deserving it. If another state comes here and put up a better show, we are not going to deprive such people of their right to win. We are planning to win fairly and squarely. We are planning to win because we are going to do better than other states. But if it so happens that they come here and perform better, then so be it.

Can you throw more light on the state of facilities?

We are at an advanced stage with the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium, it’s gone very far. That stadium is equipped like none other in Nigeria. We have the main bowl already set, the tracks, the state box, the arena covered up, etc.

The dressing rooms are of world standard. When you enter the dressing room, you would think you are at the Santiago Bernabeu or Camp Nou or any of the big stadiums in the world. The swimming pool is Olympic size, the multipurpose indoor sports hall, etc. everything is set.

Apart from the main stadium we also have facilities in the University of Benin, we have facilities in other schools as well. We have an indoor sports hall in Etete in GRA Benin and other venues, In terms of facilities, we are right up there.

You have not spoken on medical?

In terms of medicals, we built that in right from the beginning, when we were setting up sub-committees to deliver the festival, we made sure there was a medical subcommittee and that committee is being headed by CMD of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Dr Obaseki.

All the hospitals in the state are put on alert, ambulances have been obtained and are ready and all the medicines and equipment required have all been procured. We are ready.

Sports, tourism, and entertainment all go hand in hand. Does Benin have the capacity to accommodate the thousands of athletes and visitors expected to pour in here during the festival?

Benin is a natural hub in Nigeria. There is no part of Nigeria you are going to that you don’t pass through Benin, so

we are not alien to large crowds and visitors. For instance in December, when easterners are migrating to the east, some always break their journey to pass a day or two here. We have large number of well-furnished hotels, the transportation system very flexible and functional and we have entertainment locations all across the state.

Relatively, Edo state is one of the safest states in the country. We feel, no matter the number of people that come to Edo state, we will absorb them and give them a good time.

Talking about safety, particularly in this era of insecurity, is there a mechanism in place to filter the thousands of visitors expected to come to Benin City during the festival? How are you going to determine who is an athlete and who is a Boko Haram?

There is a very organised system for the athletes to come in and every state will be responsible for their athletes and their contingent. By and large, we have a very elaborate community security mechanism that we call the public works to volunteer.

Recently, we selected and trained about 2,000 in addition to what we have on ground already. So we have in excess of about 3,000 active community security operatives we have selected and trained.

These people will be working directly with the police, DSS, Civil Defence, the Army. We are very ready for any eventuality that will occur but I tell you, we are more organised that nothing like that will occur throughout the event.

Finally, what is the message for Nigerians who will be coming for the sports festival?

We are asking everybody to come, expectant to have a fair duel. One thing we want to restate is, we are not going to be partial in any way. We will ensure that we will support a level playing field for all athletes to come and compete.

We want to also assure the people that there would be enough side attractions to engage them when they are not in the sports arena, there are a lot of places to go to. People in Edo state are warm and friendly. It is going to be a fantastic time and we want everybody to come.

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