By Oluwamayowa Fakande<\/p>\n
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has charged athletes participating in the 2024 National Sports Festival to compete with fairness, honour and integrity, calling sports a powerful tool for national unity.<\/p>\n
Speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at the opening ceremony of the 22nd edition held at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena on Sunday night, Tinubu said the government is committed to building a stronger and more united Nigeria through sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want sports to thrive \u2014 independent, innovative and purposeful \u2014 because of its vital role in making our nation healthier and more united,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, nothing brings us together like sports. Whether on the pitch, in the court, or on the track, we stand as one. I urge every athlete to uphold integrity and fairness in all contests,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n
He reminded participants that though they come from diverse backgrounds, they are bound by a common identity and national pride.<\/p>\n
The festival, which runs from May 16 to May 30, has attracted over ten thousand athletes from across the country.<\/p>\n
On the opening day, Invited Junior Athletes dominated the weightlifting events, clinching two gold, one silver and one bronze medal in the 45kg women\u2019s category. Chijoke secured both gold medals, while Tekumbur claimed bronze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Oluwamayowa Fakande President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has charged athletes participating in the 2024 National Sports Festival to compete with fairness, honour and integrity, calling sports a powerful tool for national unity. Speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at the opening ceremony of the 22nd edition held at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena on Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":66001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-66000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66002,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66000\/revisions\/66002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}