TS from the Sidelines 
As a die-hard sports lover and having had the honour of being Sports Edi- tor of some of the nation’s foremost newspapers including Guardian Express and ThisDay for years, I should have been over the moon when I learnt that Nigeria was seriously hoping to become the first nation on the African continent to host the Commonwealth Games; but in truth, I was seriously ambivalent. The nation was informed in April by the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) that it had met the March 28, 2025 dead- line for Expression of Interest to bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games.
The quest became firmer penultimate Thursday when the Commonwealth Sport Bid Evaluation Committee visited Abu- ja, to meet top government functionar- ies over Nigeria’s interest in hosting the Games scheduled to take place in just five years! President Bola Tinubu, represented by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, for- mally received the delegation at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. “What I can assure you is that we’re ready,” he told the delegation. He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to hosting an inclusive, diverse, and worldclass 2030 Commonwealth Games.
Special Adviser to the President on In- formation and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement he signed ti- tled: ‘Nigeria ready to host Africa’s First Commonwealth Games in 2030, President Tinubu assures.’ Gbajabiamila, along with a strong Fed- eral Government team of ministers and senior government officials, held strategic talks with the delegation led by Darren Hall, Director of Games and Assurance at Commonwealth Sport, and a member of the 2030 Evaluation Commission.
Africa has never hosted the Games since its inception in 1930. Nigeria made an unsuccessful bid to host the 2014 edi- tion. South Africa won the bid to host the 2022 Games in the city of Durban but could not do so due to financial difficul- ties. Birmingham in the UK took over and
