Today, all roads will lead to the ancient city of Ilorin, Kwara State, for the opening ceremony of the 6th edition of the National School Sports Festival.

Tagged, 'Kwara 2013', this year's competition is unique in several ways as it points the way forward for sports development in the country.

Though this year's competition was earlier scheduled to hold in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, however,the state pulled out of the hosting arrangement at the eleventh hour, thereby paving way for Kwara State to take up the gauntlet by coming to the fore to salvage the hosting of one of the oldest youth sport competitions among schools in the country.

As earlier noted, 'Kwara 2013' is unique in so many ways because it is the first time in many years of the existence of the competition that corporate bodies and even the National Sports Commission (NSC) is identifying with the competition that is aimed at discovering young athletes at their right ages from schools.

Thanks to the Minister of Sports/Chairman of the NSC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi for his efforts by making available the sum of N16million to the organisers of the event, Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF). Aside the aforementioned, kudos also goes to the Chairman of the National Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM), Mr. Yemi Idowu, who facilitated the coming in of Sterling Bank to bankroll the event with the sum of N35million for the organisation of this year's event in Ilorin.

Also worthy of mention is the wonderful support of Nestle Milo, makers of the popular Milo food drink, and long term partners of NSSF for making available the sum N7million for the organisation of the U-13 Boys soccer event at the festival.

To say the least, the tremendous support of the host state in this year's competition is unquantifiable and worthy of emulation. They complimented the efforts of the aforementioned by agreeing to stage all the sporting events on their standard sporting facilities in the state capital.

And from records made available to HT, 23 sporting events would be staged in this year's event, 17 of them are going to be scoring events, while the rest are demonstration events. However, the gains of staging this year's school sports festival are enormous because it will give the administrators of sports in the country an opportunity to unearth future stars in sports and groom them to stardom.

Thus, today's opening ceremony in Ilorin definitely marks a new dawn in sports development in the country because Nigerians from all walks of life cannot forget in a hurry, the exploits of our national U-17 team, Golden Eaglets, at the just concluded FIFA U-17 World Cup where they conquered the world.

Most of the youngsters in the Eaglets who surmounted all odds at the competition to lift the coveted trophy for a record 4th time in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are products of school sports competitions, while some are from soccer academies that are also helping to groom them to stardom.

'Kwara 2013' is another opportunity of discovering future Kelechi Iheanachos in the soccer arena and a total celebration of the best school sports competitions in Nigeria.

Again, many thanks to the Sports Minister for believing in the development and supporting of school sports festival and for once, Nigerians are already reaping the fruits of their hard-earned labour in this regard following the exploits of the Eaglets in the UAE. Also the ingenuity of the President of the NSSF, Mallam Ibrahim Mohammad, deserves great commendation.

For once, school sports is enjoying the support of the NSC, corporate bodies and some state governments due to the outstanding leadership qualities demonstrated by the Kano State-born sports administrator.

It is a clear fact that Mohammad's unquantifiable leadership qualities is already bringing in a new lease of life to school sports and it is expected that Nigerians in no distant future would appreciate the efforts this sports guru at turning around a near moribund organisation to greatness, despite the economic downturn in the country.

HT wants to appeal to sportsloving Nigerians and the great people of Kwara State to give the august visitors from various schools in the country a warm welcome and the needed support to make 'Kwara 2013' a memorable sporting event.

We hope future Blessing Okagbares in the track and field events and other future stars would be discovered at the end of hostilities in Ilorin, on November 30.

It is true that a journey of a thousand miles commences with a bold step and it is the hope of sports-loving Nigerians that the bold step taken by the NSSF, NASCOM and the NSC at 'Kwara 2013' will take Nigerian sports to the next level as we celebrate a new dawn in our once ailing sports industry.