Coach, National Volley-Ball Team, Vincent Unogwu, first from Right and players
Day and night, some sports enthusiasts in Nigeria are tidying up sequences on how to mainstream volley-ball game inn the country. But your guess is as good as mine—it won’t be as easy as a walk-over. Reason is because Nigerians love already made mono-product. The culture of cultivating new grounds and getting it to start yielding is not present in Nigeria. If you doubt this, you can ask politicians. The only promising political party is the ruling party. Other political parties irrespective of their political ideologies can go to blazes. The economy depends on oil alone, despite the fact that other revenue sources could be viable.
In sports, for Nigeria, it’s football. Men and female football. Other sports no matter how interesting they might be are not attractive.
Despite these disincentives, some sports lovers and doing all they could to build volley-ball sports base in Nigeria. And their efforts are already paying-off as a good number of school children are now getting interested in volley-ball.
A young Nigerian, Vincent Unogwu, is taking the initiative of catching them young and training them on volley-ball. Mr. Unogwu has been inviting sports lovers from both private and public sectors to invest in volley-ball game in Nigeria. Interestingly, some individuals and organisations are already keying in as patrons and partners.
Over the weekend, Mr. Unogwu and patrons organized a dinner for the young volley-ball National players. Reason was to inspire them more and also think of strategies to grow the game in Nigeria.
Unogwu said: “Nigeria has a lot of talents. What we are doing is to harness these talents. These children are doing very well. I remember some years ago when I invited these kids from their houses. Their parents did not like the idea. But I kept on encouraging and training them. Today, they are the best in the country. Some of them have left the shores of Nigeria to play in Europe. Very soon, some more will get the opportunity to travel out. We keep encouraging them and also inviting more children”, he said.
He noted that the challenge they face is agency support. “We need government agencies to support these children so that they could leverage those platforms to access international opportunities. If it comes to talent, we have it. and we are not relenting”, he noted.
He said with support from patrons and well-meaning individuals, volley-ball game is gaining popularity across the country and volley-ball courts are now springing up in Abuja, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Jos and other parts of the country.
