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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
No fewer than 300 cyclists, 150 golfers and 400 athletes participated in the first edition of the International Road Crash Victims Africa (IRCVA) sports programme.
The registered participants had converged at the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) Golf Club of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Base, Airport Road, Abuja venue of the event held on Saturday.
Speaking on the motive behind the sports tournament, President of Court of Appeal and founder of Kwapdaas Road Safety Demand Foundation, Hon Justice Monica Bolna’an Dongban-Mensem CFR, said that it was an event to create awareness on the safety of the road for users.
Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines after teeing off, she explained that: “The purpose of this outing is to enlighten Nigerians on the safety of our roads. We want to use the sports programme to enlighten people to be mindful and take responsibility in driving.”
“Whenever they are on the road, whether driving, riding a bicycle or motorcycle or walking, we want to draw attention to them on the need for safety on our roads. We have had too many victims on the roads,” she said.
On why the organiser decided to use sports to create the awareness, she explained: “We are not actually limiting ourselves to anything but we opted for golf, and walking because they are avid travellers while playing the game just as cycling requires use of the road.”
“In developed countries we have cycling routes which are lacking here. The road users have to be enlightened on the need to be safe and mindful of the roads.”
“For the golf, we have about 150 players that registered to participate in the exercise. We also have about 400 persons that indicated interest in the walking. As for cycling, they are about 300 athletes that participated.
“Beyond the awareness, we always present trophies and medals as compensation to the participants to encourage and motivate them. The cyclists are out to drive awareness while the golfers will only play nine hole kitty not full course.
“This is the first edition involving sports to support the International African Congress for road victims but we have sponsored few other tournaments,” she explained.
Equally explaining the motive behind the event, the president of the Nigeria Golf Federation, Otunba Segun Runsewe, said: “This event around sports is about crash and safety in Africa and the Nigeria golf federation is in support of any positive movement to develop the humanity and coexistence among Nigerians irrespective of religion and tribe or others.
“Our major concern is to give support to this conference so that it can reach to many Nigerians and by the year 2030, the issue of road crashes would have been reduced to the barest minimum particularly in Nigeria. We are proud and happy to connect, network and identify with this noble event,” to told Sports Writers on the sidelines at the golf club.
