In a bid to reposition the Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF) and take the sport to greater height, President of the NJF, Musa Oshodi, has called on all stakeholders to join hands with the leadership of the federation for the development of the game.
In a chat with our correspondent in Lagos during a two-day Invitational Open Judo tournament organised by the Lagos State Judo Association (LSJA), Oshodi said the future of the game is very bright in the country, but that all hands must be on deck.
He said: “The future of the game in the country depends on how you look at it. If we manage our resources very well, the future of the game is very bright; but if not, it may be in a coma.
“Part of the machinery we’ve put in place is to first restructure the board because if you don’t have a responsible board, you cannot achieve success.
“Second, we have mapped out plans to train our coaches, umpires and even the judokas in order for them to meet up with the current standard all over the world as well as international courses.
“We are also embarking on scientific marketing drive to do everything possible to achieve corporate sponsors because we are going to lay emphasis on sponsorship drive.
“Once the corporate ogranisations are impressed with what is going on in the board, they will want to associate with us and not leave everything for government.
“Olympics is around the corner, and there is nothing to prepare for it. So we want to make sure that we participate in as many competitions as possible to put the judokas in shape.
“We also intend to have an academy for the judokas. While pursuing the game, they must not put their education in jeopardy. Education and the sport must go together.
“We will also look out in the area of age grade concepts, with different coaches handling the judokas; so that they can be more serious and take the sport seriously.”
He added that the board would also need the support of the National Sports Commission (NSC).
He said: “For now, we are enjoying their support; but we want funds outside the NSC. The NSC cannot do it all alone. We have talents and we need to encourage the talents. If NSC can put necessary support in place, the game will grow very well.”
