Why Dikko, Olopade must excel at Nsc, by Adesoji

..says Wahid Oshodi inspired him to join government

The current Vice President and Technical Director of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Tayo Adesojiin an interview with Saturday Telegraph's CHARLES OGUNDIYA said Nigerian table tennis will definitely benefit from Wahid Oshodi's position as President of the African Table Tennis Federation. Fragments

What would you say about the second African Table Tennis in Diaspora tournament held in Ibadan in late 2024?
The truth is that we have players who want to be world-bitter. They have the arts, they have the basic skills, but what they need is to take them to the next level. And so competitions like these give them a chance to showcase their talent and potentially see sponsors. And at the same time, you know, learning new ways to play. Because when there are no competitions, you may think you know how to play, but during competitions, when you beat blue, black, two, three times, four times, all you have to do is exercise, repack yourself to to get started. the next level. And at a time like this we try to discover new talents. If you see what we have done in the last year and a half in the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation, we have put a lot of effort into junior players so that we keep them young and then make sure they are prepared to go to the higher level.

Some of these young players were at the African Championship, what made me make that decision?
As technical director, I took the risk of taking very young players to the African Championship. Many people didn't believe in it. But for me, it didn't matter to me if they were going to be defeated or not. I'm more concerned about them seeing the game from a different perspective so they can be prepared too. So I took (Matthew) Kuti, Abdulbasit and (Muizz) Adegoke, those three young players. They joined Aruna Quadri and Olajide Omotayo. And surprisingly, they were the African champions in the team event. They became African doubles champions over all other senior players who came for the competition. So if that could happen in their first senior assignment, you can imagine the prospect we have. And they have also been defeated by their peers in Nigeria. Even at home there are players who are beating them now. So if we continue to take care of them like this, the Atanda Musa era will return.

How does it feel to have the tournament in Ibadan?
I am happy that we are now doing this in Ibadan. Because Ibadan is the home of table tennis. If you look at the history of table tennis in Nigeria, you cannot become an African champion if you have not played in Ibadan in the past. Well, Lagos took it all, now it's coming back home.
You just mentioned Ibadan. Would you say you can close your eyes and say, oh, the people organizing this could easily do any other competition without much supervision?
I can tell you that in Nigeria we are fortunate to have a person like (Wahid) Oshodi at the time the game died. God brought him to the scene. He then served as the Commissioner for Sports, Lagos State. And then he brought the game back to life. Started many competitions in the country, especially in Lagos. Many of these people have worked on packaging these matches. And so it should not be a problem for us to now organize a match that is not at that level. What are the requirements for a standard competition? The atmosphere, the hall, the floor, the tables and everything else can be purchased, except the players. So what is it that we don't have? We don't have a hall here (Ibadan), a conditional hall. Yes, that's what we're going to work towards. We don't have the floor. I have the floor. The floor used by Nigeria today was purchased by us personally. So if we could do that for Nigeria, I won't do that for the state I come from? So the chicken has come home to roost.

As you said, there are several young talents here in Nigeria, but often they don't get the opportunity to play matches in the top circuit. Likewise, they always play against top players, how does the federation try to get them into major championships to increase their points?
You see, things are evolving at the International Table Tennis Federation. Fortunately, we have Wahid Oshodi, he is the vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation, and so there is a fair amount of information coming to Nigeria now. We are also equally pleased that he is now chairman of the African Table Tennis Federation. So things are happening and things will continue to happen. Now we want to benefit from what Egypt benefited from, because they were president of Africa for a very long time, more than twenty years. Now that all the benefits of table tennis have gone to Egypt, it is now our turn to work with Oshodi so that Nigeria can benefit from his position as president. Not only are we the President of the ATTF, the Chief Operating Officer of ATTF is also a Nigerian, so what else do we need? We just need people who support table tennis. Don't talk down about table tennis. You can take us down, those are the administrators. Don't talk down about the game. So if you continue to support table tennis like these people in the diaspora are doing, oh my God,
You have personally invested a lot in table tennis, what have your profits been?
Some people will say that I have wasted a lot of resources playing table tennis, but they have not checked my heart. You know, because I love the game, I love my young boys, I want them to be successful, I want them to be more successful than us, and I want the game of table tennis to survive, there is, even if I'm not more. So I'm happy that we're on that trajectory.
Recently, the National Sports Commission returned with Shehu Dikko and Bukola Olopade at the helm of affairs. Do you see these two people and the Commission itself taking sports in Nigeria to the next level?
If these two people fail, I don't know who can succeed. Honestly, I'm telling you the truth. If Dikko and Olopade fail, it will be over for the sport in Nigeria. I don't know who can make sport a success again. Because these people are not only passionate about sports. They do things, they are the ones who encourage people like us to exercise. What am I doing there? I don't, I never had time. But if they could create time for sports, why can't I create time? That's where I am. I never wanted to play table tennis. I don't even like publicity, I love just being in my cocoon. Support the players as they play with equipment, table tennis balls and such. Don't call me anything. But when you see all these guys you mention, you want to see that Oshodi, who has never played before, I have played, he has never played before, is sacrificing things for this game without thinking about what he will gain. So who am I? Who are you that you don't think twice about adding value? I tell you, if the current leadership of NSC fails, it will be over for the sport in Nigeria.

Let's talk about you: what attracted you to table tennis as a young boy?
You know, it was a game that was played everywhere when we were young. From soaked to the corner shop, everywhere. And you know, for a young person, you just want to use this energy. And we had places where we could use the energy. You know, I grew up in Ibadan. So you play everywhere, play everywhere, while you play you lose some, you win some, you make friends, you make enemies, we were happy. When a child is happy, we do not participate in wrong vices. We were happy and we made friends. We expanded our shores, we also learned. So everything worked together. And when you play table tennis, all your senses are affected, both the brain, both the body, both sides, your leg and movement. So you are suitable for reading and also passing, it is a combination of everything. So for us, when we were young, my father was never into sports. My father is an educationalist. Then I was playing football and I broke my leg. And the day they brought me home that my leg was broken, I was given twelve strokes of the stick. You know, with the pain I had in my leg, I took a good beating. So when I started playing table tennis, it wasn't as difficult as football. He accepted it because he thought it was unlikely that I would get hurt, especially because of my weak nature. So he only gives me an hour or two to go play and then come home. After two hours you get a punishment. But the point is that I played table tennis and it was comfortable and convenient. You know, those times when we didn't know they were buying rubber. They used to give us for free. Even when I joined the Obafemi Awolowo University team, I didn't know that they bought those things because I got them for free. The wood and rubber were free until I graduated college before I knew those rubbers had actually been purchased. Very expensive and I had to buy it, you know. That time, if God could give us that grace to give these guys rubber, wood, even if it's just one wood a year, two rubbers a year, then they can take care of themselves. Some people who play in the diaspora bring the rubber they used to Nigeria to sell it. Kudos to Aruna Quadri. Look at what most of the young players are wearing, it's all Quadri. How many players have played internationally, you see their names on the shirts these guys wear. All I can tell you is that you will only see Aruna. So he has done so much for the game of table tennis. We can only pray that God continues to expand His coast. God continues to give him the grace to do more, grace for him to continue to excel in his efforts. And now he's getting old, so who will replace Aruna? That is the question we ask ourselves in the NTTF. And I'm sure this is the question journalists will ask too. And now look at the players we have now, I don't have to answer for you. You too will be accountable for your media. Those who have the potential to replace Aruna, you will see them. We're going to have a closed camp very soon where we put all these young players, see most of them are young, they're between 16 and 20, that's what we want, we want to catch them young. It's not that we don't want the old players anymore, yes, we will help those players, we will put them in places where they can earn a living. Maybe they go abroad and stuff. But then the young people have to be world beaters. They can't be world class if they don't also play with the older players. So it's a mix. They are a mix.

You said they went camping, is it camping to prepare for a certain championship or just because you just want them to continue working on their skills?
It's both. It is both because we invest and because we discover new players that have potential. That is why we continue to place them in the camp during their holidays to show their talents. For the ones we've already discovered, we're preparing them. You know, Nigeria is hosting the African Youth next year and there are four such competitions back to back. We have the African Youth, we have the WTT, we have the WTT Youth, we have about five in the space of two months. We don't want Nigeria to be second, we want Nigeria to be number one. And so we have to have camps. And we will not camp them in Lagos, we will camp them in a place where all they will see are lamps, a table, an egg and coaches. So it's closed, you know, we plan to. They will be somewhere where they won't see anything.

Related