Championship
By Abolade Ogundimu
Abuja, Oct. 7, 2018 (NAN) The Para-soccer Federation of Nigeria celebrates 30th anniversary of the Nigeria-invented game with the 6th Para-soccer World Polio Day Championship in Lagos from Oct. 18 to Oct. 24, says Musbau Didi, the federation’s President.
Didi made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Abuja.
NAN reports that Oct. 24 has been declared by United Nations (UN) as World Polio Day to remind the world of the danger in Poliomyelitis which affects children from 0-5 years and how to kick it out of the human world.
NAN also reports that Nigeria is almost out of the polio endemic countries list through sustained advocacy and vaccination by the government and donor organisations, especially, Rotary International.
According to Didi, the choice of Lagos for the 2018 edition is to celebrate three decades of para-soccer and to sustain sensitisation of the public across the six geo-political zones on the need to fully kick out polio.
“Survivors of poliomyelitis spread across the country and we are using the championship to achieve our goals.
“We use the annual competition to sensitise the public on the consequences of polio attack on their children.
“Also, to show the world that survivors can still engage in any healthy sport peculiar to them.
“Coincidentally, para-soccer was invented by myself and few other polio survivors in Lagos 30 years ago and it has been gaining popularity till date and hopefully, it will soon become an continental sport.
“It is already being embraced in Ghana and others are still coming, which shows that polio survivors around the world are willing to be united through sports like their able-bodied counterparts,” he said.
On how the game has developed over the last three decades, the federation’s president said it had been continuously evolving.
“In the last 30 years, para-soccer has become a national sport in Nigeria where paraplegic persons in all the states now compete with one another.
“Through our commitment to development of the game, we now have a national league like any other sport in the world.
“Also, we now have zonal leagues which makes it possible to engage our athletes as professional players, many of whom are now being employed by state governments because they are good players.
“Para-soccer is just being included in the National Sports Festival (NSF) for the fourth time which is one of the requirements for it’s inclusion as a continental sport.
“I thank Solomon Dalung, Minister of Youths and Sports Development, for considering our inclusion, and I also thank the Permanent Secretary of the ministry,” he said.
However, Didi lamented the challenges of the sport, saying appropriate funding and national support would greatly help in surmounting them.
“We are yet to get sponsors for the game and that is seriously hindering our efforts to take the game to continental level.
“There are many corporate organisations in the country, they should help to elevate para-soccer to global heights, government funding alone cannot help in achieving that.
“We have wonderful players that can show the beauty of the game to the whole world for subsequent adoption and inclusion into continental and global sports.
“Ghana recently adopted the game and it has got sponsors who are fully funding the game to the extent of having lots of competitions in and outside their country,” he said.
NAN reports that the 2018 edition of the national league was postponed till 2019 due to paucity of funds.
However, Didi said International Federation of Skate Soccer (IFSS), an NGO based in Ghana should rather collaborate instead of trying to reinvent the wheel in invention of para-soccer.
“Ghana needs to collaborate with Nigeria and ensure that the name given to the game remains unchanged.
“Changing rules of the game should be in agreement with Nigeria as the founder and not unilaterally by another country.
“We founded the game 30 years ago and we have been nurturing it since then before they saw us and adopted it,” he said.
PFN boss promised to resolve the issue of para-soccer’s continental adoption with IFSS but if it refused to yield, it would be resolved through Nigeria-Ghana bilateral relations.
Binatone, an electrical appliances manufacturers fully sponsors the game in Ghana, while Nigeria has yet to get sponsors.
NAN also reports that a recent CNN documentary on the game in Ghana acknowledged it emanated from Nigeria. (NAN)
