British Council Nigeria Receives Queen’s Baton Ahead Of The 2018 Commonwealth Games

British Council Nigeria received the Queen's Baton at their head office in Lagos on Tuesday ahead of the 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth Games which was earlier scheduled to hold in Durban, South Africa will be staged in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from the 4 to 15 April, 2018.

The Queen's Baton is a traditional curtain raiser to the Commonwealth Games since inception from the 1958 Games in Cardiff, Wales to date. According to the British Council Director, Business Service, Lucy Pearson, the visit will help contribute to the development of the creative and other sectors of the economy in Nigeria.

Secretary General of the Commonwealth Games Association of Nigeria, Tunde Popoola, said that the Queen’s Baton in NIgeria will serve as a wake-up call for the sporting federations who have not begun preparations for the games.

He said “The truth is that the Queen’s Baton is a symbol of unity amongst us, and the baton relay is like a wake-up call to countries that haven’t started preparing for the Commonwealth Games, we are getting ready, and this is also sensitizing the public that there is an event coming up. So it serves for us in so many different ways and it’s given us so many dimensions to the whole event.”