IWD Football Tourney: Sports Minister Urges More Attention For Women
By Ignatius Ushie
As the world marked the International Women Day yesterday, Nigerian women were not left out, hence there was a novelty football competition to celebrate the day in Abuja.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, urged all Stakeholders in the country to leave no stone unturned to ensure more support is given to women for them to excel in their chosen field of life.
Dare gave this advice on Wednesday in Abuja when he kicked-off the 2023 Women’s International Day Football Tournament courtesy of FAME Foundation amid pop and excitement in the FCT.
The International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
It’s also a day to make a call to action for accelerating gender parity, women’s achievements and rally for women’s equality. The Minister while speaking called on all stakeholders to give more support to women in the country.
According to him, “the narrative has since changed and we must pay attention to women, I think they are getting a better share, they are getting better opportunities, the doors are opening to them, they just need our women and young ones to work through that door, the best we can do as a country, as a community to open more doors for young women in the country and they need to walk through because they are equipped to do it.”
He commended the FAME foundation for their efforts towards empowering women: “We have watched closely the efforts of FAME in the last five years and I am glad that it’s paying off. We can all see the enthusiasm displayed here is massive and commendable.”
Earlier, the elated Founder of FAME foundation who has been using all her energy to champion the course of women for equity and justice, Aderonke Ogunleye Bello, expressed happiness noting that, she is happy to be putting smile on the faces of many Nigerians and she will not relent in fighting for women equality.
According to her, “As of today, female athletes don’t get the support male counterparts get and it is so sad, the new administration should look and work together with relevant organizations to improve the welfare of female athletes.”
Responding to a question she said “As we know Nigeria is heterogeneous in nature and what brings Nigeria together is sports at the same time, we can use it for development and we have been doing it for the past five years. This is the fifth edition.”
At the end of the one day competition, Team NAWOJ won their counterpart team ANFN 1-0 to emerge overall champion as the third position went to team FAME/AMAC.
Other teams that took part in the championship include Team USA, Team Canada, Team Bet9ja, Team ASHWAN, Team East Africa, Team North Africa.
