Team Delta retained the top spot in the 2022 edition of the National Sports Festival after a thorough review of the medals table, as directed by Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Mr. Sunday Dare. The News Agency of Nigeria reported that Dare inaugurated a committee of experts, chaired by Retired Brig.-Gen. Emmanuel Okaro, to examine the medals table of the 21st NSF—dubbed “Delta 2022”—following complaints of irregularities from several states.
The committee’s terms of reference included identifying shortfalls in the original computation and establishing the correct results to resolve the disputes. In a statement signed on Wednesday by Ismaila Abubakar, a permanent secretary of the ministry, it was announced that “the medals table has now been rectified and approved by the ministry.” The committee found that human errors stemming from administrative laxity, inexperience, delays, lack of awareness, and misapplication of the festival’s substantive rules caused the flaws in the initial table.
Applying the full set of rules meant that results from certain events—specifically in athletics, scrabble, weightlifting, and wrestling—that did not meet scoring criteria were excluded from the revised table. Additionally, in accordance with Rule 28 of the World Para Powerlifting Rules and Regulations (March 2022), only the “Best Lift Medal” results were recorded for powerlifting. Consequently, most states retained their positions on the medals table, maintaining the status quo, although some states lost medals as the committee applied all applicable rules for an event of this magnitude.
To correct the observed anomalies and uphold the festival’s integrity, the ministry will implement appropriate administrative procedures to prevent future occurrences, as recommended by the committee. In the reviewed medals table, Delta State led with 280 gold, 168 silver, and 120 bronze medals, followed by Bayelsa, Edo, and Oyo States, which earned 106, 69, and 43 gold medals respectively. Oyo, Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Akwa Ibom, the FCT, and Ogun remained in the top ten, while Zamfara, Sokoto, and Jigawa occupied the bottom of the table with zero, one, and five medals respectively.
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