By Ben Efe 21.4.2026
A storm is brewing over the decision to trim the number of sports contestable at the National Sports Festival to be hosted by Enugu State to 15.
Some state sports commissioners, coaches and athletes have bared their minds on the drastic cut made to the sports list. From all indications, some states are preparing to boycott the Coal City 2026 Games, if there is no review of the decision to streamline the sports to 15.
Also, unconfirmed reports about some states being banned from the NSF para sports event for not participating in the national para championship recently held in Lagos, is not going down well.
“If this turns out to be true then we might as well boycott the festival.
“Is there any Rule that says: states that didn’t attend para games would not be eligible for sports festival?
“No state should be penalised for not attending the para games, it is not every state that has money to attend. NSC cannot force states to attend the para games,” a state sports commission official said.
But what seems to be the most vexing issue is the axing of almost all the ball games or team sports; only football and basketball survived the chop. Board games chess and scrabble also are not on board for the Coal City 2026 Games and so do Olympics sports like handball, volleyball, hockey, rugby, shooting and canoeing.
“The list of sports is not encouraging, all Olympic sports should be in the festival. What happens to coaches and athletes who have been training for the festival? It is devastating that they would not be participating,” said Gabriel Opuana who is Nigeria Coaches Association president.
“A lot of athletes and coaches whose sports have been delisted will likely be disengaged by their respective states and they will be back to the streets.
“We are calling on the NSF to have a rethink before it is too late. The decision is capable of causing disaffection.”
He noted that states who do not have facilities shouldn’t be selected as hosts of the national sports festival.
Delta State Sports Commission chairman Onos Oborevworie also called on the NSC to walk back the decision.
“This is not a community sports gathering, it is the National Sports Festival and it does not make any sense that some major sports could summarily be dropped off just to satisfy the hosting state.
“The NSC must be seen to be protecting and striving for the development of all sports and not just list 15 sports, to whose benefit?
“Sports Commission chairmen across the country are not happy with the decision and we are going to make a general statement on this issue as soon as we discuss the matter” Mr. Oborevworie stated.
A director of sports from one of the states who wanted his name out of print said the decision was like setting a bad precedence: “If the issue of number of sports for the NSF is left at the discretion of host state that is to say any other state hosting can say they have facilities for only 10 sports and so on.
“The procedure ought to be inspection of facilities of the states bidding to host the festival and to ensure if not all at least 80% to 90% of facilities are available for the number of sports to be Competed for.
“In the past, hosting rights have been taken from states who are not ready and awarded to states that are ready. If Enugu doesn’t have the facilities to host the number of sports like the last edition in Abeokuta, Ogun State the hosting right should be given to another state that is ready.”
Hon. Daniel Igali, Bayelsa State Commissioner for sports and Former Nigeria Wrestling Federation president called for dialogue on how core Olympic sports can be accommodated, adding that the number of core sports should be the decision of the State Council of Sports and not the hosting state to decide.
“I know that we had a meeting in Calabar last year where we agreed that almost 40 sports for the festival is too large and if we continue, most states would not be able to host the National sports festival so we should bring it down to a bearable minimum.
“But that was not supposed to be 15 sports, we have essential high end sports like volleyball, handball, which are not there. These are sports that engage so many youths; and then the mind sports like chess and scrabble are also not on the list, these are very key and important sports and are popular with young people.
“And then we have NMA, which has never been a medal winning sport at the NSF, It is new, it is not at the Olympics, it is not at Africa Games and Commonwealth Games, how do you bring in NMA and take out Olympic sports? For me it’s a bit troubling.
“We must pay priority attention to Olympic Sport; take a sport like canoeing, a sport that has qualified for the Olympics and attended the last two Olympics and almost got a medal, is it not a core sport? One of the criteria that could be set is that you must qualify for the Olympics to be a core sport.
“We need to have a dialogue with the NSC so that we can look at 20 compulsory sports to be decided by the council of sports, that is, all the states participating in the NSF. We have to set a criteria for us to say these are the core sports, sports must meet or achieve a certain criteria.”
He added that if Enugu cannot provide all the facilities and venues, nearby States can provide such venues.
National Sports Commission director general, Hon Bukola Olapade remarked that the decision to reduce the number of sports was solely made by the State Council of Sports meeting in Calabar.
“The first thing is that every director of sports and commissioner of sports signed up to the agreement that we reduced the sports from 33 to 20… 15 compulsory and five optional at the Council of Sports meeting in Calabar. It is not the decision of the NSC. It was a Council of Sports decision and that is the highest body for sports,” Hon Olapade stated.
“They could have objected to it and so that we can leave it the way it used to be. But they all voted for the reduction. The reason for the reduction is not far fetched though, it is in line with what the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and African Games are beginning to do, that is reducing the number of sports thereby reducing the number of participants and cost.
“The decision at the council of sports was based on making the NSF more affordable for states to host the games. What we’ve done is what is obtained globally and it was a decision by the Council of Sports, the only way it that can be changed is when there is another Council of Sports meeting and I doubt there is going to be one before the Coal City 2026 Games in November.”
He noted that the NSC has encouraged sports that would not be at the NSF in Enugu to organise three national competitions, which would be funded by the NSC.
“Apart from football, athletics, basketball and maybe badminton, how many national sporting events from junior to senior have you noticed that are being organised? We told the federations to come with competitions around the states and we will fund them.”
Handball Federation of Nigeria president Jubril Saidu said he cannot question the decision to leave out his sport from the NSF.
“We are on standby. If they call on us we will get organised, but we cannot question why handball was left out,” said Saidu.
“This is why we lay emphasis on competitions so that our players can have a platform, other than the national sports festival to get busy.
“We all are also into grassroot development of players with a view of grooming them for the national team.”
