By Fidelis Ebu
President Badminton Federation of Nigeria, Francis Orbih believes the game of badminton would bounce back to top position among the sports in the country.
Orbih in an exclusive chat at the inauguration of the National Sports Federations Boards at the lobby of Abuja National Stadium said the federation would embark on aggressive sponsorship drive to realise the desired fund to organise regular tournaments to engage the players.
He also emphasised on age grade tournaments in the federation’s bid to develop the sport.
“It’s obvious that the government will not provide us with the required fund to develop the sport, and we’re going to embark on aggressive sponsorship drive to realise the required fund to organise regular tournaments for the players.
Remarkably, the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung while inaugurating the National Sports Federations Boards, was emphatic when he said that the federations should source for sponsorship to execute their programmes as government would not provide funds to the federations.
“In our bid to bounce the game of badminton back to what it used to be in the 1980s; we’ll to take the sport to the primary and secondary schools. And age grade tournaments would be our focus to fish out the likes of Sampson Egbeyemis, Tamunos, Tunde Agarawus, Oby Edogas and a host of yesteryears stars. I believe with good programme, we’ll be able to attract the attention of the corporate organisations to partner with us to take the this game of badminton to the desired height”, Barr Francis Orbih said.
He pointed out that now that the board has been inaugurated, “we will swing into action to ensure that the players are constantly engaged. And in any tournament we organise, we’ll include the cadet category.
“We’ll not only focus on the players, attention will also be given to the officials to ensure ensure that they are given the desired exposure to meet with the international best practices”, he added.
