By Saidu Abubakar
The Nigeria’s Pillar of Sports, Chief Donatus Agu-Ejidike (JP) has hailed the Nigerian national women basketball team, the D’Tigress, following their historic victory over their Malian counterparts in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, over the weekend.
Ejidike, in an interaction with a group of Sports journalists in Ilorin, shortly after the match on Sunday said, “this team has done what no other team in Africa has done, and therefore, deserve to be commended.” With that victory, the team just surpassed Senegal’s record of, “four-in-a-row”, from 1974 to 1981, by winning the title for the 5th consecutive time on Sunday.
The Pillar of Sports commended the Tigresses for emulating their footballing counterparts – “The Super Falcons” who won their 10th WAFCON title out of possible 13, underscoring Nigeria’s dominance in their respective sports.
It would be recalled that, the D’Tigress, after a nail-biting victory against Senegal in the semi final, which they defeated Senegal on Saturday, 75-68, made a light work of seeing-off Mali, 78-64, to clinch the historic 5th title in a row, which is a record that will take some years, if not decades, for any team to break.
The former President of the Karate Federation of Nigeria (KFN), while congratulating the team and their technical crew, urged the ladies to focus on how they will extend their prowess to the global stage as a way of consolidating on their achievement in the last Olympic Games in Paris, where the coach Rena Wakama-tutored side got to the quarter finals – the first African team to do so.
He also commended critical stakeholders like the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) under the leadership of Engr. Musa Kida; the National Sports Commission (NSC) ably led by Mallam Shehu Dikko, and above all, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his wife and First lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, for their words of encouragement and motivational gestures towards Nigerian athletes.
The Nnewi-born Sports philanthropist opines that, every move the administration of President Tinubu and his team in the Sports sector has been yielding nothing but positive results, adding that, if Nigeria continues at the rate at which it’s going, the country will soon gate-crash into the top-five nations, in at least, ten most popular sports in the world.
He, therefore, urged the President not to relent in efforts towards repositioning sports, but instead to keep his foot firmly hard on the accelerator, to change the narrative for the better.
