National Sports Festival: Remo Stars owner reacts to Ogun State 2024 hosting rights

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

The owner of Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Remo Stars, Honourable Kunle Somame has expressed his joy after Ogun State won the hosting rights to stage the next National Sports Festival (NSF).

After the successful hosting of the last edition in Asaba, Delta State capital, Ogun State will host the next edition in 2024 which returned the game to South West Nigeria.

Soname who is also a member of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NPFL revealed that he is happy that some events at the festival will hold at Remo Stars Stadium, Ikenne, the home ground of his club.

“I feel good. It’s quite normal to feel good when things are being seen and acknowledged. When you are doing stuffs and it is being acknowledged you feel good and motivated to do more,” Soname told www.nigeriafootball.ng.

“I feel good that Ogun State is going to host the National Sports Festival and some of the events would hold here.”

Ogun State won the hosting rights for the 2024 National Sports Festival after beating off the competition from neighboring Oyo State which has been put on standby in case Gateway State fails to host the game next year.

Soname, a Nigerian politician, entrepreneur, sports enthusiast, and the chairman of Bet9ja, and airline Valuejet is on cloud nine after his state clinched the hosting rights from Oyo State.

Ogun State last hosted the National Sports Festival in 2006, tagged “Gateway Games” with the RIYE mascot standing for the four zones of the state; Remo, Ijebu, Yewa, and Egba (RIYE).

The benefits of the Gateway Games were enormous and had a lasting impact on indigenes and residents years after the Festival. The Gateway games had a lot of buzz and excitement around it. Ogun State had a good strategy and it was hugely successful every step of the way.

The first move was to create a sense of purpose and seriousness around the presentation of their bid to host the games. The state was business minded and thorough, and they put together a very good bid document that wowed everyone.

After winning the bid to host, the Ogun State Government promised there will not be any postponement. All the facilities would be ready and the 2006 NSF would begin on the date announced at the first instance and that happened.

The marketing drive for the Gateway games was led by Yomi Majekodunmi, a very charismatic and articulate former Managing Director of a financial institution. His knowledge of the private sector impacted positively on the NSF.

Marketing communications experts, outfits, and advertising agencies were also part of the aggressive commercial push. Top music producers, Kennis Music, with some of the nation’s A-list artistes in their stable, produced a theme song for the games.

That song was made into a jingle that enjoyed tremendous playtime on television and radio.

Some sports shows on television and radio had paid segments devoted to promoting the games. Newspapers had their sports pages dominated by stories around the Gateway Games, onsors were falling over themselves to be part of the action. The media had so much content to share, and sweet stories to tell.

At the closing ceremony, the then Governor, Gbenga Daniel announced that the Gateway Games was a success and declared a profit.

For many years after the Games, Ogun State was the hub of sports in Nigeria. There were good enough facilities that served as camps for football, athletics, and so many other sports.

The state hopes to re-enact the same memories come 2024 when it hosts the next NSF.