INTRAMURAL SPORTS IN NIGERIA
Intramural sports in Nigeria dates back to the first group of schools established in the country. These sports event served as a veritable means of talent identification and development as many athletes discovered in time past came through intramural sports and were further groomed to the elite and professional level.
The University of Lagos Football Team during a training session at the sports center
The importance of talent identification at the early state cannot be over emphasized as it can be an effective way in the development of Nigeria's sports at large. Majority of children attend schools and the very best from each school discovered through inter house competitions (inter house sports) can be selected to represent their schools at the inter school events at the local government, hence the best are selected. And this transcends to the state level and national level, hence we have exceptionally gifted student athletes discovered at an early age (Ademola, 2018).
However, Nigerian sports has suffered many issues as regards its administration and organization and this has affected intramural sports competitions. This causes young talents to be hidden and not properly developed as a result of unavailability of an inter school sports system from the local government level to the national level. Hence, the various federations do not get the best athletes the country has to offer at that age group competitions, making them work with what they have.
In recent years however, a few states in Nigeria have started to realise the benefit of early grooming in sports and talent identification hence they organize inter school sports events. An example is Lagos state yearly organizing the Ibile games which includes basic and secondary school students across the state. Some private corporation have also stepped in such as Nestle organizing the Milo Basketball championship for male and female student, GTBank organization the Principals cup, among others.
Ademola, V. D., (2018). Intramural sports in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://www.youdread.com/2018/08/intramural-sports-in-nigeria.html
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