The President, Mega Handball Veterans has urged the leadership of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) to strive at all cost to work in unity with other stakeholders of the game and concentrate more on the development of the sport at the grassroots.
Saidu who double as the Secretary General of Commonwealth Handball Association made the call during a friendly match between the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) FCT and the Veterans on Saturday in Abuja. The game ended 5-5 draw, with the FCT SWAN taking the lead barely three minutes into the first half of the encounter. He however, expressed surprise that despite playing the game the first time, SWAN team was able to record a draw against the veterans.
He noted that there was more concentration on senior level competitions rather than grassroots and age grade tournaments which was hampering the growth of the game in the country.
“In the HFN today, apart from the Prudent Energy tournament in the North Central, the handball family don’t have a major game.
“The grassroots development and youth tournaments are not as regular as they used to be while we were growing up in this game.
“We are supposed to be organising alot of under age and youth grade tournaments. As a matter of fact, football learnt under age sports from handball but today we have thrown it behind us.
“Our emphasis is now on the senior level tournaments and until we are ready to concentrate on grassroots development of the sports, we are not going to make any head way.
“Also, the Ministry of Youth and Sports which is the umpire of the sporting body in this country must be willing and ready to diversify and give adequate attention to other sports other than football.
“If this is not done, no other sport, including handball can grow in this country as it is quite evident that we are backward compared to other African countries,” he said.He also stressed that the game was also suffering from a lack of good leadership, adding that there was still the issue of disunity among stakeholders which has stunted the growth of the game.
“The game of handball has suffered a great deal in the country in the sense that there is still the lingering issue of cohesion, unity and understanding between the stakeholders of the game.
“There is also a lopsided leadership of the game in Nigeria. A situation where you have a single decision taker in the HFN who believes in the idea of “winner takes all” is very unfortunate.
“A single decision taker does not constitute a leadership and a society where you have no unity, there is definitely bound to be chaos,” he said.
He thanked the leadership of SWAN FCT for always doing their best to project the game of handball in the country, adding that without publicity, the sport will also not get the necessary attention it deserves.
Also speaking, a veteran, Jonathan Elendu who was thrilled with the performance of the sports writers said, the participation of SWAN members in the game of handball will enhance their reportage, makes their reports richer because they will be reporting from the position of experience.
Emmanuel Fashemi, SWAN handball team captain who got the first goal of the encounter said, the match offered the pen pushers the opportunity to practicalized on what they have being writing about the game, while noting that SWAN team trained for six months ahead of the encounter.
Meanwhile, FCT SWAN chairman, Ndubueze Chidoka who scored two goals to his credit thanked the veterans for the opportunity given to his members to be part of the beautiful game of handball, adding that the game has further broaden their knowledge to the rudiments of handball.He admitted that during the match, they learn alot about the rules, ethics, how to shoot and everything about the game.
