The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo will on April 1 in Lagos unveils the mascot for the 26th Nigeria University Games (NUGA) to be hosted by the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Also, in their bid to stage a befitting tournament, the management of UNILAG is seeking support of public and private sectors for the multi-sports fiesta.
Speaking at the pre-games seminar held at the weekend, the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, disclosed that the Vice President, an alumni of the school would on April 1 unveil the games’ mascot.
He also called on state and federation governments including corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals to come to the aid of the institution to stage a world class competition.
“We want to host the NUGA games, first to be the best that we ever had in Nigeria; two, to expose our students to international competitions and three, to make sure that Nigeria is proud concerning hosting while the fourth aim is that we are hosting to win.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform this gathering that we need help because hosting NUGA games is not an easy task and we don’t want to host and complain when the facilities are not ready. We want to host so that the facilities at the end of the day will be used for the West Africa University Games (WAUG), that’s our vision. I’m telling everyone present, whatever you can do to assist us so that we will have a successful games and all necessary financial support that we need,” the VC pleaded.
Being the 26th edition of the games, UNILAG and NUGA management signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in November 2018 and the host took the occasion to assess its level of preparedness.
Ogundipe however, restated the commitment of the institution to the games, while pledging that the school would raise the bar after staging the tournament.
The seminar drew industry experts from security, administration, logistics, medical, publicity and sponsorship with several papers deliver to sensitise the Local Organising Committee (LOC) on the importance of the events and the need to help in the preparation.