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By Francis Nwaubani

Sports has been described as a veritable tool for the empowerment, emancipation and total liberation of youths and adults alike.

In the past sports was viewed as more of a recreation, entertainment and way of keeping the body fit but in modern times, sports has become a multi-billion dollar industry and business, lifting people from relative obscurity to stardom and giving economic prominence to individuals, families, communities, firms and even nations.

Today, the likes of Victor Osimhen, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi in football, Anthony Joshua in boxing, Michael Schumacher in motor racing, Lebron James in Basketball, Roger Federer in Tennis among others have become house hold names and made fortunes from hitherto obscurity to fame due to their perforamcne in the different sports.

It is also pertinent to mention that all the big sounding names in sports have one thing in common, they were all discovered young and nurtured to stardom through deliberate efforts to expose them to stardom.

Little wonder that the concept of the 1st Dr. Alex Otti Secondary School Unity games received loud ovations across the breadth and length of Abia and beyond as soon as it was conceived by the present administration in Abia.

For one, school sports have almost become a thing of the past in schools across Nigeria because of the proliferation of private schools and their lack of space and inability to accommodate sporting activities as part of their curriculum activities.

To address this anomaly, the Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development in Abia, Sir Nwaobilor Ananaba quickly rallied with the State Acting Director of Sports, Comrade Obioma George and a crack-team of sports administrators in Abia to set the plan in motion for the commencement of the School Unity Games in Abia.

So history was made on Tuesday January 23rd, 2024 at the Umuahia Township Stadium with the official lighting of the torch of peace and unity of the 1st Dr. Alex Otti Secondary School Unity Games by no mean personality than the Deputy Governor of Abia, Engr. Ikechukwu Emetu who represented the Governor while the event attracted the crème de-la crème of sports personalities in Abia.
 
Since then, the torch has gone round the seventeen local government areas of Abia where it was received by the different mayors and today 1st February 2024, the stage is set for the official opening of the games at the different councils with the local organizing committees charged to ensure the smooth take-off of the games tomorrow across board.

Indeed, Abia is agog once more for the right reasons with pundits already saying the fact that this event will expose the budding talents across all nooks and crannies of the State, solve youth restiveness as well as make God’s own State the Oasis of sports development in the comity of states in the Nation.

Kudos must be given to the sports loving Governor of the State, Dr. Alex Otti, for giving the young students and youths adequate attention through sports among other platforms to fully develop their potentials.

The Governor has also made known his intention to bring Abia up to par in global standards in sporting infrastructure with the bid to construct a brand new ultra modern stadium on the pipeline, as well as upgrading facilities at the Enyimba Stadium, with hopes that such gesture will be extended to the Umuahia township Stadium and the Nsulu games Village.

Little wonder Abia has continued to shine like a million stars in National and International Competitions which culminated in their taking the second position at the last National Para-Games in Abuja.

Governor Otti has continued to sponsor four football clubsides at the different cadres of the Nations league including Enyimba, Abia Warriors, Abia Angels and Abia Comets football Clubs in a bid to giving Abia Youths with football talents adequate platforms for exposure and excellence.

He appointed sports technocrats to manage the affairs of these clubsides and it behooves on the different Chairmen of the clubsides to work as a team with their Management Boards who were rightly appointed by the Government to manage the affairs of the Clubsides.

The recent positive exploits in sports in Abia cannot be completed without mentioning the inputs of the Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Sir Nwobilor Ananaba, the ever hardworking Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Youths and Sports cum Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Chinedu Ekeke and the versatile and experienced Acting State Director of Sports Comrade Obioma George who have adequately managed and harnessed resources and talents towards making Abia the destination for sports development in the Nation.

As the first Dr. Alex Otti Secondary School Sports Unity Games roll-off the ground today, students, teachers, Head teachers, local organizing committees, local government Mayors and the central organizing committee are all expected to synergize and ensure the event turns a rousing success while adequate and timely logistics support should be made out to ensure maximum outputs.