The Lagos West Senatorial District is gearing up for a vibrant display of sporting talent as the Obasa Games begins on November 15, 2024.
The grassroot development focused competition, set to conclude on December 14, will bring together budding athletes from the 11 Local Governments (LGs) and 19 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) within the district.
At a press conference held on Friday, Abdulganiu Obasa, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), announced the transformation of the event from the previous “Obasa Cup,” which focused solely on football, to the expanded “Obasa Games.”
The revamped competition now includes four additional indoor sports: Scrabble, Chess, Table Tennis, and Boxing, with the aim of promoting inclusivity across the participating LGs and LCDAs.
“Last year, it was only football within Agege, but this year, we’ve taken it to the Lagos West Senatorial District, bringing young athletes from across the local councils together,” Obasa explained.
“We’re expecting over 200 to 300 athletes, with top teams like Robo FC of Mushin and Dannaz FC of Ikeja set to participate. Alongside football, we’re excited to introduce indoor sports like boxing, table tennis, scrabble, and chess.”
According to him, the competition will provide opportunities for young athletes to showcase their skills, with cash prizes up for grabs, saying the football champions will take home N3 million, while the runners-up and third-place teams will receive N2 million and N1 million, respectively.
He added that the boxing and table tennis winners in both male and female categories will receive N1 million each, while scrabble, and chess champions will win N500,000 each with additional prizes valued at N500,000 will also be distributed.
Obasa noted that the games will primarily take place in the afternoon, coinciding with school closing times to encourage student participation and attendance, mulling that the next edition would feature track and field games.
“Next year, we plan to introduce track and field events,” he added. “It would be exciting to find out who the fastest person in Lagos West is, but we are gradually expanding the games.”
He said the registration would be done online to engage participants, particularly targeting secondary school students.
“What we have done is to use technology this time around, to create an online link, share it across, social media to engage a lot of participants and we have started seeing a lot of people registering even more than we actually do but we have decided to give the young one a chance. We will filter their age, local government, and educational level. We will refer to secondary schools in the competition,” he said.
The football matches will take place across three venues: Dairy Farms Secondary School, Awwarul Secondary School, and TTC Ifako Ijaye, while the indoor sports will be hosted at the Agege Sports Complex.
