Minimah Hailed By Stakeholders Over Boxing’s Debut In NUGA Games

IKPO IGBINOBA 

President of the Nigeria Boxing Federation, (NBF), Lt. Gen Kenneth Minimah (rtd) is the man of the moment in the sports community.

The NBF chief is receiving accolades from stakeholders for the adoption of boxing in the NUGA Games.

Boxing will debut in the University Games which is scheduled to take place in the University of Lagos, Akoka between March 16th and 27th.

The NUGA authorities only accepted boxing to be part of the Games after a powerful presentation made by the Gen. Minimah led board. It will feature as a demonstration event.

Reacting to the development, the lecturer in charge of boxing in the National Institute for Sports, NIS, Adegboyega Adeniji-Adele hailed the NBF for ensuring that boxing made its way into the University community.

According to him “With this breakthrough of introducing boxing to the university community, Gen. Minimah’s board has achieved a rare feat”.

Adeniji-Adele noted  “With boxing in the NUGA Games, the sport will receive a tremendous boost in terms of participation as many students would embrace the sport”

He said the present leadership of the board should be praised for being able to convince the NUGA authorities to accept the sport.

The lecturer revealed that in the past, NUGA resisted different attempts to introduce boxing to their programme.

Also speaking, former national judo coach, Edokpolor Ihaza lauded the NBF for taking a step which he described as “the right step in the right direction”.

Ihaza, who is also a lecturer at the NIS said with the development, more youngsters will take to boxing.

“Having boxing in NUGA will revolutionise the sport in many ways. 

First, more youngsters will take to the sport and secondly, there will be a new perception about boxing”.

The judo coach explained that before now, many people considered boxing to be a sport of the street but with the universities accepting it that perception will change.

Ihaza recalled that the introduction of judo into NUGA Games in the 1980s boosted the profile of the sport.

Olympian Moses Malagu described the development as the greatest revolution in Nigerian boxing.

Malagu who was a member of the Nigerian boxing team to Barcelona Olympics in 1992 said boxing in Nigeria will never be the same.

According to him “With boxing in the universities, a lot of job opportunities for coaches and other technical and support staff required for the sport”.

Malagu, one of the coaches preparing the boxing team of hosts UNILAG added that the universities would also produce boxing talents that will do the nation proud.

A University graduate, Chiagozie Okoronkwo said the development will create new opportunities for many students in the universities to pursue their dreams through boxing.

It would be recalled that Gen. Minimah promised to take Nigerian boxing to greater heights after he was reelected last September.

With the NUGA Games feat, Minimah has taken a giant step towards fulfilling that promise.