By Fred Edoreh
The National Youth Games remains one of the most important programmes in Nigeria’s sports calendar.
It was conceived after Team Nigeria fired all blanks at the London 2012 Olympics. We had banked then on the likes of Blessing Okagbare, Chika Chukwumerije and others who had been in the circuit for about a decade, perhaps oblivious that they were getting done.
We also imported a number of Diaspora athletes whom we would not have got from their countries of residence, were they in first choice.
The disappointment led us to the understanding of the need to drive focus into regular generation of young talents to be nurtured into the elite class for future competitions. Thus was the Youth Games launched in 2013.
Through the years, however, the emphasis seems to have descended from discovery of talents to winning, the reason, perhaps, we have kept hearing about age cheating and other practices that do not compliment the principle and spirit of the programme.
Indeed, I have come to observe a few trends in the pursuit of victory in the Youth Games, which often seems to me like the proverbial having 100 yams and adding 100 lies.
Besides age cheating is the discrepancy, or inconsistency, in the situation, usage and circulation of some athletes in some determining sports, for which I will give a few examples.
Gymnast, Stephanie Ogechukwu Onuisiruika, had earlier represented Team Delta, at about 2023 or 2024, winning 4 gold medals in the beam, floor, vault events, and best all-around.
Curiously, in the 2025 edition, she featured for Team Lagos for which she returned three gold and two silver to boost their medal haul.
From my observatory, I am at a loss to determine which state athlete she really is. She is said to be 14 this year, meaning she might still be eligible next year, and who knows which state she might represent next year. I only hope that she has not been commercialised in the budding of her very promising career.
And, by the way, she was already a discovered and well known gymnast who, in my opinion, despite her eligibility by age, should no longer be taken into the shenanigans of medal chase at the youth level.
To be clear, Stephanie was at Edo 2020 National Sports Festival where she picked a gold, two silver and a bronze medal. She was also at the 2019 and 2022 African Club Championships in Pretoria, at which she picked gold medals too, and in 2024, he was received by then Sports Minister, John Enoh, as a recognised national asset.
Therefore, being an established athlete, what are we achieving by rotating her around states for medal chase in the Youth Games? Personally, I find it difficult to see and glory in an athlete who was at the senior National Sports Festival in 2020, featuring in the Youth Games in 2025.
An athlete like that should be positioned and programmed for higher elite competitions and performance, not any more in the Youth Games.
In swimming at the just concluded 9th edition, Lagos swept the stakes with 19 gold. Delta which used to dominate the pool, and Bayelsa which made some impressions between 2023 and 2024, did not show up in the party.
Why? It seems to me that the Delta Sports Commission, and rightly so, decided on a journey of rediscovery.
For instance, in the previous editions, Aiden Dumuje Abili, a young swimmer of Delta parentage but resident in Lagos, produced four gold medals in 200m individual medley, 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly, and 4x50m mixed medley relay for Team Delta.
Supported by his super mum, Irene, to various international competitions and overseas training tours, he is known in swimming as “The Bullet.” He was still eligible for the Youth Games this year, but Delta did not bring him on.
Stephanie and Aiden, alone, would have meant about eight gold medals for Team Delta, which could have swayed the medals table, had Delta meant to have them in, but the Sports Commission looked away from them, to give chance for the trial and discovery of new potentials.
This is why I applaud Delta, even in returning second place, because what was the point? The two athletes are already established and known. Their direction should be up in the intermediate and elite categories, not always returning to the Youth Games to accord bragging right to any state.
The same appears to have been the case with Team Bayelsa in swimming. In the previous editions, they had Durotimi Babatunde who won two gold and one bronze medals for them – in 50m and 100m freestyle and mixed-medley relay. Durotimi was chaperoned by another super mum, Mrs Funmi Durotimi to feature for Bayelsa then.
So also was Olaana Onyejianya, the daughter of Beverly Agbakoba-Onyejianya, and grand daughter of legal luminary, Olisa Agbakoba SAN, who won gold in 100m backstroke, silver in 50m backstroke and bronze in mixed medley for Bayelsa then.
Did Bayelsa miss them this year? I would say no. Back in Yenagoa, I have seen hundreds of six to eight years old kids training at the Sports Council swimming pool, and they will show up when they are ripe.
In my view, that is the way to go for the Youth Games.
Finally, while I congratulate Lagos, Delta and Edo for sustaining their status as the leaders in Nigerian sports, my best impression from the 9th edition of the Youth Games is on Kwara and Abia states who pushed their way into the top 5.
Those who had followed the competition from 2023 would have seen Kwara coming quietly but steadily, picking medals in areas otherwise thought exclusive to some other states. Here they are.
I personally didn’t figure Abia State rearing its head among the top teams, but I do know that the Sports Commissioner, Nwaobilor Ananaba, had some ideas for sports development up his sleeves, and had been busy on various projects in the past one or two years. Perhaps, the result is what we saw…
