Despite the poor score-card of the country in sports in the last fifty two years as a nation, a leading light with carefully planned programme and a pool of athletes to groom for the future has emerged in the firmament. Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) Sports teams is it.
Her sports teams winning streak throughout the 2012 sporting calendar is unique in many ways. The team has remained unbeaten in nearly all the competitions it competed for, hence recorded a milestone achievement in showcasing the abundant world class talents in the University, to the extent that professional clubs are fallen over heels to get the signature of many of the talents. Thirdly ABUAD sporting teams have succeeded in breaking all barriers, chart a new course in developing our common humanity and shape our collective destiny for better through winning friends across ethnic, cultural and geographical boundaries.
The season began on a fast note with a friendly football match with her counterpart from the Bells University, Ota, Ogun State. The encounter confirmed the strong determination of ABUAD teams to become a reference point in sports. Her outstanding performances against the Bells team was full of attacking verve and a sparkling midfield which featured a trio of superstars in a 4-3-3 pattern. ABUAD team won with an emphatic two goals to nothing.
Coming on the heels of this success, the University of Ibadan Medical football team played against their ABUAD counterparts.
The free-flow footballing prowess of ABUAD orchestrated by a diamond formation dominated proceedings. The result was a richly deserved triumph. The Ibadan team also lost by two goals to nothing.
In another pulsating derby encounter, the Ekiti State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ Football team locked horns with ABUAD staff team and they cost lost by four goals to two.
The winning streak of ABUAD continues in Basketball. ABUAD beat the Ekiti State Basketball Team by 55 to 45 points.
In the Tennis category, ABUAD team defeated their Federal Polytechnic counterparts by two points.
The ABUAD chess team at the Ekiti State Higher Institution Games in which it won I gold medal 3 silver medals and 13 bronze medals did not gone unnoticed. The Ekiti State government had already nominated some players to represent her in the forthcoming national sports competition billed for Lagos.
At the recently concluded one day sports fiesta between Babcock University teams and ABUAD at the Babcock Sports Arena, which featured football, basketball, volleyball, Badminton, lawn tennis, table tennis and athletics ABUAD top the events table with 4 wins and 1 draw.
Meanwhile, the ABUAD Sports Director, Prof. Michael Ajisafe described the university’s gains in the year under review as very encouraging. Things, according to him, are not taken for granted in ABUAD. Action, he said speaks louder than words. The tried, trusted and failed fire brigade approach to sports which Nigeria is known for, is not in ABUAD’s lexicon. He attributed the outstanding success to the support of the founder, Aare Afe Babalola who invested adequately in the right resources laced with Aare’s philosophy of building from the scratch and his untiring efforts in providing a very conducing environment which produces better sportsmen and women that are more confident and psychologically prepared to compete.
At an interactive session in Ado-Ekiti, the Sports Director, who was the first Professor of Sports Science in Nigeria who also double as the Deputy Vice Chancellor insisted that ABUAD’s best is yet to come. He commended the result oriented synergy between the management and staff of the University in moving sporting activities forward and overcoming all the challenges confronting it. The shock of Nigeria not winning a single medal at the London Olympics and the crushing blow to our national prestige are catalysts for ABUAD to do more in the town and gown relationships
Prof. Ajisafe frowned at the country’s participation at the summit of global sports, the Olympic where Nigeria has two gold medals out of the twenty-three medals won so far in fifty-two years. He called on the National Sports Commission to re-strategies and start planning now for the next Olympics in Rio De-Janeiro, Brazil. The Don concluded that Nigeria should not be groping when it ought to be a key player in global sports.
It would be recalled that Prof. Michael Ajisafe was the Head of Nigeria Sports delegation to the Olympics held in Spain where Nigeria won medals.