The hopes of Nigeria turning into the primary African hosts of the Commonwealth Video games have suffered a significant setback following the announcement of Ahmedabad because the official host of the 2030 centenary version.
The choice, confirmed on Wednesday by the Government Board of Commonwealth Sport, successfully ended Abuja’s daring and impressive quest to carry the Video games to African soil for the very first time.
The Indian metropolis, situated within the western state of Gujarat, beat Abuja in a fiercely contested bid that got here right down to the wire.
The choice can be ratified on the Commonwealth Sport Normal Meeting in Glasgow on 26 November. For India, it marks a triumphant return to the worldwide sporting stage—twenty years after internet hosting the 2010 version of the Video games in Delhi.
For Nigeria and Africa, it’s one other reminder of how shut, but how far, the continent stays from internet hosting one of many world’s oldest multi-sport competitions.
Nigeria’s close to miss: A bid rooted in historical past and aspiration
This was not simply one other internet hosting bid. Nigeria’s marketing campaign for the 2030 Video games carried historic weight. Had Abuja succeeded, it will have been the primary time within the Commonwealth Video games’ 100-year historical past that the occasion could be staged on African soil.
The bid was strongly backed by President Bola Tinubu, who in July 2025 pledged federal help to make the Video games a “continental spectacle and an emblem of African capability.”
In March, the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) formally submitted the nation’s expression of curiosity, describing the Abuja proposal as “a compelling narrative for the nation’s progress and readiness to ship a landmark Video games.”
All year long, Nigeria engaged in intense diplomatic and strategic lobbying.
In August, a high-level Nigerian delegation; comprising high authorities officers, sports activities directors, and diplomats, met with Commonwealth Sport leaders in London to current Abuja’s case. The bid highlighted the capital metropolis’s intensive sports activities infrastructure, together with the Moshood Abiola Nationwide Stadium, its rising resort and transport networks, and Nigeria’s lengthy observe report of internet hosting main worldwide sporting occasions, from the All-Africa Video games in 2003 to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2009.
Nigeria was certainly one of solely two nations to satisfy the ultimate submission deadline of 31 August, the opposite being India.
“This was a continental bid,” mentioned Kola Daniel, a senior media aide to the Minister of Sports activities, in one of many official communications earlier this yr. “Abuja 2030 was about Nigeria, nevertheless it was additionally about Africa lastly taking its place within the Commonwealth sporting motion.”
How India pulled away
India’s Ahmedabad bid, whereas late to the race, gained irresistible momentum earlier this yr. With Canada’s multi-province proposal collapsing and Hamilton, the host of the inaugural 1930 Video games, pressured to withdraw, the battle successfully grew to become a two-horse race.
Ahmedabad introduced a close to faultless technical proposal constructed on state-of-the-art infrastructure. Its centrepiece, the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world’s largest sports activities enviornment with a 132,000 capability, had already hosted world spectacles just like the 2023 Cricket World Cup closing. India’s bid was backed by each central and state governments, guaranteeing monetary stability and operational readiness.
The Commonwealth Sport analysis fee scored candidate cities on infrastructure, athlete expertise, sustainability, governance, and alignment with Commonwealth values. Based on officers accustomed to the method, Ahmedabad’s superior logistics, supply plan, and financing have been decisive.
“We see the 2030 Video games as a strong alternative to encourage our youth, strengthen worldwide partnerships and contribute to a shared future throughout the Commonwealth,” mentioned P. T. Usha, President of the Commonwealth Video games Affiliation of India, after the announcement.
A Century marked — and a continental wait prolonged
The 2030 Video games will mark the a hundredth anniversary of the inaugural version held in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930. Over the many years, the occasion has developed from the British Empire Video games into a world competition of sport, diplomacy, and shared historical past.
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Ahmedabad’s choice brings some stability to a motion that has confronted main uncertainty in recent times, together with the withdrawal of Victoria, Australia from internet hosting the 2026 version and the cancellation of Durban 2022.
For Nigeria, the frustration is palpable. Abuja had hoped to leverage its 2030 bid to encourage infrastructural transformation, strengthen its gentle energy, and reposition Africa on the centre of Commonwealth sport.
This isn’t Nigeria’s first heartbreak. The nation had beforehand bid for the 2014 Video games, solely to lose out to Glasgow. This newest setback prolongs Africa’s wait to host the occasion, regardless of the continent’s deep sporting heritage and rising world affect.
Trying forward: A promise for the Future
In saying Ahmedabad’s choice, Commonwealth Sport additionally prolonged an olive department. “The Government Board has agreed to develop a technique for supporting and accelerating Nigeria’s internet hosting ambitions for future Video games, together with consideration for 2034,” the physique mentioned in a press release.
That assurance gives some comfort. Abuja’s 2030 bid was extensively praised throughout the Commonwealth for its readability of imaginative and prescient and continental significance. With stronger long-term infrastructural ensures and sustained political will, Nigeria could but carry the Video games to Africa.
However for now, the centenary Video games, which might have been Africa’s defining second, will as an alternative be celebrated in India.
