The 18TH national sports festival EKO 2012 came to an end on Sunday 9TH Dec, 2012 with mixed feelings for the athletes(some like the Delta representatives were ecstatic and found it hard to curb their joy and fulfillment which is understandable-they went home with the 241 medals(99 Gold,85 Silver,57 Bronze),the largest number of medals. Rivers followed on the medals table with 177(65 Gold,54 Silver and 58 Bronze). Lagos, the host state came third with 124 medals. All together an impressive showing for the winners and a not too impressive showing for the losers who lost well too...some with 3 medals and others with 2 but at least they participated. The opening ceremony was beautiful I heard so I decided not to miss the closing.
It started with KWAM 1 who had to stop his performance a little after starting because of some glitches with the sound. That however, did not deter the performance or enjoyment of it by the spectators . years of experience under his belt came to fore as he worked the crowd to a frenzy with his rendition of the Eyo/Eko song. The man in front of me though deaf( there were a lot of physically challenged at the point where I sat) could not help but join in the frenzy, although I wondered what he was actually dancing to. They all danced, the deaf, mute, slightly blind- so, it must have been some song- and for the not physically challenged perhaps mentally challenged(it's difficult to ascertain in Lagos the mental stability of most individuals), they made such a raucous that I feared some might actually hurt themselves. The KWAM 1 performance was immediately followed by Oleku which the compere who seemed to think everyone was slow of hearing took almost forever to announce. I quite frankly did not understand what the Oleku was about. They truthfully bored the tears out of some people as they could be heard shouting "comot for stage jare". As obviously the Oleku people could not hear and continued performing, the spectators found new ways to entertain themselves as blown condoms started flying everywhere and we became passive smokers of weed, the main source of the smoke could not be ascertained in such a mamoth crowd but it seemed to have many starting points and so we endured... The national anthem rendition which was beautifully done, gave a reprieve from the smoke, then the parade by the athletes who refused to hear what the compere was saying: he stressed that there was no need for them to hoist their flags anymore, they have come and competed and formed friendships, therefore. there should be easy camaraderie among them, that they should mingle and not walk according to their states anymore...he was of course speaking to the wind as they refused to hear, at a point he had to address individual states to fold their flags....
It started with KWAM 1 who had to stop his performance a little after starting because of some glitches with the sound. That however, did not deter the performance or enjoyment of it by the spectators . years of experience under his belt came to fore as he worked the crowd to a frenzy with his rendition of the Eyo/Eko song. The man in front of me though deaf( there were a lot of physically challenged at the point where I sat) could not help but join in the frenzy, although I wondered what he was actually dancing to. They all danced, the deaf, mute, slightly blind- so, it must have been some song- and for the not physically challenged perhaps mentally challenged(it's difficult to ascertain in Lagos the mental stability of most individuals), they made such a raucous that I feared some might actually hurt themselves. The KWAM 1 performance was immediately followed by Oleku which the compere who seemed to think everyone was slow of hearing took almost forever to announce. I quite frankly did not understand what the Oleku was about. They truthfully bored the tears out of some people as they could be heard shouting "comot for stage jare". As obviously the Oleku people could not hear and continued performing, the spectators found new ways to entertain themselves as blown condoms started flying everywhere and we became passive smokers of weed, the main source of the smoke could not be ascertained in such a mamoth crowd but it seemed to have many starting points and so we endured... The national anthem rendition which was beautifully done, gave a reprieve from the smoke, then the parade by the athletes who refused to hear what the compere was saying: he stressed that there was no need for them to hoist their flags anymore, they have come and competed and formed friendships, therefore. there should be easy camaraderie among them, that they should mingle and not walk according to their states anymore...he was of course speaking to the wind as they refused to hear, at a point he had to address individual states to fold their flags....
No comments:
Post a Comment