The Lagos State University (LASU) may not participate in the 24th Nigerian University Games (NUGA) scheduled to hold from Feb.12 to Feb.22 at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun.
The NUGA Co-coordinating Coach for LASU, Owoyemi Idowu, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos.
He said that there was nothing on the ground for the athletes to be part of the event.
“There is nothing to depict that the school is going to be part of the students’ games which is just about three weeks away from now.
“The management has not made any fund available for the event. As it is now, there is no training of any kind going on in the campus.
“The sports council is at a crossroads at the moment. Finance-wise, everything is at a standstill now,’’ Idowu lamented.
LASU had, participated in eight sports during the preliminaries of NUGA.
These included volleyball, judo, taekwondo, track and field, tennis, table tennis, basketball (male) and soccer.
According to the coach, there is no form of mobilisation of athletes going on as regards the biennial university competition.
“We have made presentations to the university’s management for the release of funds to enable us attend the competition, but to no avail.
“There is no response from the management which is a subtle way of saying we are not ready for the games,’’ the coach told NAN.
Idowu appealed to the management to help the school’s athletes who qualified for the competition to achieve their dreams by providing funds to attend the event.
NAN reports that four private universities will attend the competition.
The private universities are: Lead University in Ibadan, the Bells University in Ota, Ogun, Benson Idahosa University in Benin and Achievers University in Owo, Ondo State.
LASU won one gold and one silver in long distance race, one bronze in table tennis and two silver in judo at the last NUGA held at the University of Benin in 2011.
