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By Emma Njoku
President of Veteran Wrestlers Association of Nigeria, Morris Atula, has assured that the association will revive Nigerian wrestling.
The former Nigeria, Commonwealth and World Wrestling champion said veterans were shocked by the poor state of Nigerian wrestling, hence their resolve to return wrestling to the glory years of yore.
The London based Atula, who has been the chairman of Edo State Wrestling Association in the last four years, decried the poor outing of Team Nigeria Wrestlers at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and other championships, a development he blamed on bad leadership in the past 12 years.
“Nigeria is a strong wrestling nation but poor planning and lack of motivation from the outgoing board of Nigeria Wrestling Federation has been the bane. There were no national programmes and championships for the discovery and nurturing of new wrestling stars.
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“Focus was more on Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta area, while the North West, South West, North Central and other geopolitical zones were completely ignored. This has to change as most veterans who won laurels in the past for Nigeria have been neatly penciled down for the revival of Nigeria wrestling. If I and other stakeholders are voted into the next board of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Nigerian wrestlers would rule the world again as it was when we were fighting regularly”.
Also speaking after recent veterans’ online meeting, Philip Momoh, who is the Financial Secretary of the Nigeria Veterans Wrestlers Association, said, “Henceforth, veterans will play key roles in scouting and developing talents nationally. There would be rotational programmes, training and championships in the six geopolitical zones of the country. We (veterans) have chosen Moris Atula as the next president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation at the expiration of the Daniel Igali led board’.
Momoh, who led the veterans’ delegation to visit the new National Sports Commission Chairman, Shehu Dikko, last week, in Abuja, was emphatic that Atula is most qualified to be the president of the Nigeria wrestling Federation.
“Atula is a technocrat who knows what wrestlers and wrestling require to excel. He is a team player and does not run a one man show. He could not have visited Shehu Dikko alone in Abuja as Igali did. We trust that Atula will continue with same humble and team spirit while also providing vital sporting materials like Mats and other well fair packages in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
“Moris Atula believes in working with the best hands to achieve results because that was how he became a world champion. He knows everyone; we know him and he knows us. Atula has interest of wrestlers in mind and will work with the best coaches and technocrats who had been champions at different times. Only such a man can make us produce world champions and avoid a repeat of the present lamentation after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games flop”, Momoh concluded.
