IKPO IGBINOBA
Coach Sefiya Onubaye has seen it all in the world of weightlifting as an athlete, a coach and a lecturer.
She has traversed the world flying Nigeria’s flag and winning laurels both as an athlete and as a coach.
Coach Onubaye is the quintessential stakeholder in the weightlifting community.
Lately, Nigeria’s declining fortunes in weightlifting plunged her into mourning and the country missing out of the Tokyo Olympics aggravated her mood.
But today, Sefiya’s mood has been replaced with joy and she explains why.
“Nigeria weightlifting now has a saviour. He is Dr. Ibrahim Aladi who was the chairman of the Weightlifting Association of the Federal Capital Territory”, Sefiya said.
Dr. Aladi was elected the President of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation during the federations’ elections on September 30 in Abuja.
Sefiya who failed in her bid to be Technical Representative on the board said the emergence of Dr. Ibrahim Aladi has assuaged the pain of her loss.
According to her “It pained me watching from the sidelines the fortunes of my beloved sport decline.
“So I decided to contest and bring about some positive changes but I lost out”.
“It is natural for me to feel bad after losing but I am the happiest person today with the election of Dr. Ibrahim Aladi as President”.
Coach Sefiya who is also a lecturer at the Nigeria Institute for Sport, Lagos described the newly elected president in glowing terms.
“Dr. Ibrahim Aladi is a vibrant personality, a very successful businessman, a philanthropist whose kindness has no limit, an administrator par excellence and a result-oriented goal-getter.”
The coach said there was no better time than now to have a man of such sterling credentials to lead the weightlifting federation.
She said with enthusiasm “There is no better time than now to have a President in the mould of Dr. Ibrahim Aladi lead our sport.
“Nigeria weightlifting is passing through difficult times and the man who will rescue it has arrived”.
Sefiya appealed to all stakeholders to rally round the new helmsman for him to take weightlifting back to its glorious era.
“Dr. Aladi has all the resources to make a massive impact but he would need the support of every stakeholder to be able to translate our collective dream into reality”.
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