The vice President of the Nigeria Judo Federation, Dr. Musa Oshodi, has described the initiative of the Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi ordering elections into the various National Sports Federations as Nigeria’s roadmap of getting results at global sports competitions.
The medical doctor disclosed this in Ibadan while reiterating the resolve of the newly elected president of the Nigeria Judo Federation, Prince Timothy Nzirim, to turn the fortune of the game around.
Oshodi said Judo was on the verge of going into oblivion in the country considering the progress recorded in recent times by some other smaller African countries who embraced the game much after Nigeria had become an established name in the sport.
He however stated that the federation has concluded plans to stage a national competition in the first week of July in Ibadan ahead of a continental tournament slated for Benin Republic in the same month and an international championship scheduled for Brazil early August.
“Judo was practically dead in Nigeria, and that was why we are applying a proactive approach at the federation level to revive it from the grassroots, which would entail going round the states to re-awake it by monitoring activities of all state’s associations,” Oshodi stressed..
He added that: “The Nigeria Judo Federation will henceforth be more focused on the development and promotion of the moral code of judo. Judo is a method to develop the physical and mental capacities, whose primary concern is to maintain the health and integrity of the participants.”
