Oshodi Calls For More Corporate Support To Develop Table Tennis In Africa

President African Table Tennis Federation, ATTF, Enitan Oshodi says sports fared well in nigeria last year but noted that the country would have achieved more if some steps were taken at the right 

The former Commissioner for Sports in Lagos State adds that for nigeria to rub shoulders with world top stars in sports regular competitions, proper funding, standard facilities are key to achieving such succes

The ATTF boss stated that

Table tennis is an enormous product and  needs innovative thinking to make it lucrative for the players on the continent 

“I’ve been around the sport for a few years now so we know where the problems lie. Our problems lie around funding, equipment, and things like that. And this all goes back to money, I believe we’ve built a sufficiently good team now to help us harness the funding we need, speak to corporate bodies, to governments  across the continent. We have that kind of pull.

Nigeria especially, will have a big role to play in table tennis because they’ve been doing well in the last few years. But there’s a lot more we can do to help them, in terms of coaching, in terms of training. we’ve worked with the president before in Lagos, and we know how he helped us then, and we hope he’ll be able to help us. Shehu Dikko, Bukky Olopade, they are people who are very conversant that we think they can lead maybe a good a charge now for Nigeria to move into the, what I call, the first world of sports”. He said 

As the elections into the various positions of the sports federation is expected to hold this year 

The former chairmam of the Lagos State table tennis Association advices on what electorates should look out for in electing persons who drive the desired positive change and growth in nigeria sports sector 

“This is the time for people with capacity to come forward, it’s not for people just looking for a living, there’s no living as a president of a federation, you need to go and find the money, you need to bring your sponsors in and work well with the federal government. So we’re looking for people that have the right capacity. My advise close to the time would be for us to call out and seek out people who we know can do this and hopefully they can get elected. It’s not enough saying he has been there since, we need to access performance and hopefully get people with capacity to do the job”. He said 

Enitan Oshodi remains the first Nigerian to be elected into the board of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation and the first Nigerian to be elected ATTF President.