Sports
NSF: Edo Deaf Sports Athletes Protest Against Exclusion
Edo State Deaf Sports athletes, on Wednesday in Benin, protested their exclusion by the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sport Development from the National Sports Festival (NSF), scheduled to hold in Delta State in November this year.
Led by Coach Sunny Aimufua to the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) complex, the protesters faulted the ministry’s decision to make deaf sport optional as against the permanent status it enjoyed before now.
“We are here to protest the exclusion of the deaf sports from the forthcoming National Sports Festival (NSF) in Delta in November. It is also unfortunate that the sport has been made optional, which should not be so. You can’t be talking of development when you make a sport optional.
“Also, we have three major sport committees in the world. First is the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee and the Committee of Deaf Sports. Now the ministry has favoured the two others while we are being neglected.
“They said a sport becomes optional when there are no facilities for that sports. We must know that Deaf athletics cannot be optional because we have track in most Stadium in Nigeria by able bodied sports men and para athletes, so why won’t there be a place for deaf athletics?
“The ministry should stop playing politics with the deaf sport athletes who are different kind of persons and they need to be encouraged. They have been training and some of them are employed by the states.
“One of our athlete in Edo Assurance Omoria is the African champion in deaf long jump. If she doesn’t participate in the NSF, I would she get better in her career? She was promoted from level five to 12 because of her exploit at the African Championship by Governor Godwin Obaseki based on my recommendation.
“What we want the ministry to do is to restore deaf sport to its permanent status and ensure that they participate at the NSF in Delta”, Aimufua stated.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor