Mary Nnah andOluwabunmi Fache
The 5th edition of the annual Sports Carnival of Federal Government College Warri Old Student Association (FEGOCOWOSA), Lagos Branch brought together members, family, and loved ones under one umbrella at the Main Bowl Pitch of the Kings College, Lagos sports ground.
The year’s FEGOCOWOSA’s sports carnival tagged, “Albert Okumagba Memorial Sports Carnival”, was held in honour of late Albert Okumagba, an ambassador of sports and unity who passed on one year ago in November.
Okumagba was a pioneer to the creation of the Lagos branch of Federal Government College (FGC) Warri. He promoted sports as a tool for unification.
Speaking to THISDAY during the event, the Chairperson, FEGOCOWOSA, Lagos Branch, Sophia Onyenkpa, said that this year’s edition has been named “FEGOCOWOSA Lagos, Albert Okumagba Sports Carnival” in memory of a foremost leader, sports lover and supporter of their Alma mater, its growth and development as well as for Okumagba’s immense contributions to the sports, the association and unity schools in general.
“This fifth edition is a very special one, because it is a memorial carnival, the first of its kind, in honor of one of us, Mr. Albert Egba Okumagba, who passed on in November last year.
He actually started the first of this carnival and he has also been one of the pioneer people that started the association in Lagos state so, we have made this year’s carnival in his honor, to honor him, for all he has done for the association.
“We also have in our midst today, his wife and his family member, who came all the way from the UK, to grace this occasion”, she noted.
She stressed further that Kings College was chosen as venue for this year’s edition because Albert was also a one time student of Kings College and he held both schools so dear to his heart and finally was a foundation member of Unity Schools Association (USOSA), comprising all federal colleges.
Onyenkpa, who revealed the theme for this year’s sport carnival to be “Unity through Sports” said further that Albert Okumagba has always seen sport as a form of unity for the whole country.
“We see sport as a unifying force, and that was one of the driving forces we started this carnival in the first place under the leadership of Albert Okumagba, so we started this carnival to promote sport and for people to come together in unity.
“If you look at Nigeria, one thing that has no demarcation is sport, whether you are from the East, West, South-South, North etc, we all come together when it is time for sport so we are promoting it to get all youth to come together to do everything together in the name of sport, as a way of promoting unity in our country”, she concluded.
