Date: 2012-04-03

UNIVERSITY of Ilorin Vice-Chancellor, Prof Is-haq Oloyede has urged the athletes and officials of various universities participating at the 13th West Africa University Games (WAUG) at the school sports complex to play the games according to the rules of the games.

Prof Oloyede made this passionate plea over the weekend during the official opening ceremony of the biennial games that had about fifty universities from Nigeria and other West African sub region in attendance.

In his speech, he said "We sincerely hope that all teams and indeed everyone will play the game according to the rules, I want to emphasize that winning medals is good but it should not be by hook means or crook. That is why at the university of Ilorin, our emphasis is on hosting well and winning in that order because the fact that we have you all here and we have all these facilities that were not here few months ago has already made us winners",

"Again, let all participants remember that love, cooperation, amity and friendship count so much in this competition, but they cannot be counted like medals. We need love in West Africa; we need peace in our region. 
This is why Waug is themed 'Promoting Regional Cooperation Through Effective Sports Participation'.

"In essence, regardless of the number of medals won, I believed that any participant who does not make friends across universities and countries at the end of the competition has only passed through Waug, but Waug has not passed through him/her and it is as if the person does not come. Like University of Ilorin, we are all winners because we are all here as participants.