IKPO IGBINOBA
Morocco’s return to the All Africa Games has triggered the alarm bells in the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, NTF.
Morocco last participated in the quadrennial Games in 1978 and pulled out of the Organisation of African Unity(OAU) in 1984 over the body’s acceptance of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as member.
The North African kingdom considers the Western Sahara territory which is the Sahrawis homeland as her property.
But in January 2017, Morocco returned to the African family as she joined the African Union to end her 33 years of self-imposed isolation.
The Moroccans will not only compete in the All Africa Games next year, they will also host it.
For the technical director of the NTF, Chika Chukwumerije the return of the Moroccans to the Games is not just a development to be dismissed with the wave of the hand.
Rather, the 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medalist considers the return of the Moroccans as a challenge which should serve as impetus for taekwondoists to step up their preparations.
In his message to herald the federation’s activities for the second half of the year,Chukwumerije listed six upcoming programmes as critical.
The programmes include the Korea Ambassador’s Cup, Nigeria Open, National Sports Festival and West Africa University Games.
Others are Nigeria University Games, the All Africa Games 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Chukwumerije, who gave an update on the federation’s preparations for the 2018 Korea Ambassador’s Cup, appealed to taekwondoists to step up their training in view of the looming challenges.
In his words “Please, I want to encourage all of us to keep training hard. We have the Korea Ambassador’s Cup, Nigeria Open, National Sports Festival, the West Africa University Games and the Nigeria University Games”.
Chukwumerije expressed excitement at the upcoming events stressing that they would provide the platform to choose those who will represent Nigeria at the 2019 All Africa Games.
According to him “With all the events coming up, it means you will compete a lot between September 2018 and February 2019, which is great for team selection for the All Africa Games.
“So it means there will be lot of opportunities to get ranking points and experience. So I appeal to everyone to please keep training very hard”.
Without mincing words, Chukwumerije noted that with Morocco now in the games, the opposition would be stronger.
He charged the taekwondoists “Our opposition grows stronger. Now, with Morocco added, we’re as motivated as ever by this challenge to come out on top”
The technical director concluded his memo with a promise that the selection process for the 2019 All Africa Games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would be “thorough and fair”.
“I make you this promise-all competitive events that NTF is involved in will be fair, and selections will also be thorough and fair”.
Except for Chukwumerije’s bronze in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Nigeria’s Taekwondo has never been a force to be reckoned with on the big stage.
No thanks to incompetent administrators who used the NTF platform to pursue personal interests instead of harnessing the army of young talents across the country.
The present board seems to be changing the old narrative