State commissioners laud NDDC over Niger Delta Sports Festival
The Commissioners for Sports and Chairmen of Sports Commissions in the nine states of the Nigeria Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have commended the leadership of the commission for establishing the Niger Delta Sports Festival, saying it will greatly impact sports and human capital development across the region.
At a stakeholders’ meeting of the NDDC with the head of sports in the states, held at the NDDC Headquarters, Port Harcourt, the delegates unanimously expressed excitement at the intervention of the commission in the region’s sports sector, especially with the initiative of the competition, which they described as the greatest thing to happen to sports in the region.
Presiding over the meeting, the Executive Director, Finance and Administration of NDDC, Alabo Boma Iyaye, revealed that the project was conceived in recognition that the Niger Delta produces a huge percentage of Nigeria’s elite sports men and women.
Iyaye, who is also the Chairman of the Planning Committee and former Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, stated that there is urgent need to sustain their output in order to elevate the fortunes of both the region and the nation’s sports, in line with the objectives and drive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said the NDDC had been working with the Project Consultants, Dunamis Icon Limited, for several months, and having achieved several milestones in the preparations, the meeting was called to properly brief the state sports commissioners so that all the stakeholders will be on the same page.
“We considered it imperative to partner with and support the states for the discovery and grooming of talents into national and international stars and enable the region effectively tap