With little money, we’ll do wonders in tennis – Kurfi

Can we share with you, your experience as the chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the just concluded Africa Junior Tennis Championship (AJC) held in Abuja?Before I had the privilege of heading the committee, I never took the assignment as a big challenge; but it was a huge challenge considering that t6he hosting […]

Can we share with you, your experience as the chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the just concluded Africa Junior Tennis Championship (AJC) held in Abuja?
Before I had the privilege of heading the committee, I never took the assignment as a big challenge; but it was a huge challenge considering that t6he hosting right for the championship was given to Nigeria toward the end of the year and there was this challenge of raising money to prosecute the event.
We, at the level of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) therefore decided that since there was no money, the membership of the LOC must compose only of those living in Abuja or those that have accommodation in Abuja. This was to eliminate the issue of providing accommodation, feeding and allowances for committee members.
It was a sacrifice we took to cut cost and avoid hitches that would halt excellent organization of the championship.
It was a successful tournament as there were no cases of injuries and complaint about accommodation and feeding during the championship.
In the history of this country, there are no tournaments that we hosted without the LOC incurring liabilities after such events, but in our own case, there were no such liabilities, even though there was no financial intervention from the government.
You will be surprised to note that NTF board members from South West and East paid their air fare to attend the championship, and even paid for their accommodation and feeding while in Abuja.

So how were you able to get the needed funds to prosecute the championship that requires huge money to be successful?
We sent letters to friends of tennis in Nigeria for sponsorship, and I can tell you that many of them responded. So, we owe them a millions of gratitude for the success of the championship, because without their contribution, this event would have been a failure.
Specifically, our grateful to Coca Cola, NDIC, FCT ministry, Abatilo Oil & Gas, NEXIM, NAFDAC, Nestle Milo, CCECC, Abuja Tennis Club and many other individuals who do not want their names in print for their contributions to the success of the event.
We did not have problem with providing the required facilities for the tournament because we have enough courts at the Abuja National Stadium to host events of such magnitude, what we only did was to renovate the courts in readiness for the AJC.
In fact Nigeria has the largest number of tennis courts in the whole of West and Central Africa. My gratitude also goes to our marketing committee chairman Hon Vincent Hemba who assisted us in getting securing the feeding for the contingents to the championship.

During the AJC, Nigeria almost swept all medals, which is the best result achieved by the country in the championship, how was the NTF able to achieve this?
The process of raising a team that would represent Nigeria at the AJC started with an open screening in Abuja, which included home-based and foreign-based players and later ended with 24 players that made the Team Nigeria at the championship. Those who were successful stayed back while those who did not meet the standard were given transport fares to go back home.
We were lucky to start camping for the championship early and also attended a few tournaments as party of preparations for the event. One of such tournaments was the Late Maryam Babangida Memorial Tennis Tournament in Minna which assisted us in camping, training and also saved us the cost of camping the players in Abuja.
We went on break during the Christmas and New Year festivities and returned to camp immediately with four coaches.
Since 1914 when Nigeria was created, no federation has been able to achieve this much at a single tournament as we did at the 2014 AJC, even though not half of what is given to other federations by the government is given to (NTF) us for preparation and participation.
When you compare what is given to football and what we get, you will agree with me that the tennis federation has done a lot.
If government gives us money for the AJC in Kenya in March, we will be happy, and I assure you we will do the country proud.
You said the federation (NTF) did not receive a dime from the government (National Sports Commission) to host this championship, does it means there was no request to that effect or what actually happened?
That was done, but I don’t really know what happened. May be the minister is a minister of football or he wants to concentrate on what Nigerians want more, which is football.
We (NTF board) need to be commended for the image laundering we have done to this country with the hosting of this championship. Last year, this tournament was to hold here but it was taken to Togo over issues of security. It was alleged that Nigeria is not safe, but we have changed that with the successful hosting of the tournament here. The world now knows that Nigeria is safe for investment.
The Super Eagles will play Morocco in the quarter-final of the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa on Saturday; do you see Nigeria beating Morocco to make the semi-final?
We are praying that Nigeria beat Morocco on Saturday and reach the semi-final of CHAN. The team has been improving with every game and I don’t see the reason why the Super Eagles cannot beat Morocco on Saturday, though has a good league with their stars playing at home.
We started badly, losing the first game, but I have no fears, it was the same way we started during the African Cup of Nations last year which we went ahead to win.
People have been complaining about the standard and quality of our local football league, but you can see that we defeated South Africa that has a strong league and most of the country’s players are playing at home.
Even the league, has been improving of late with the support of the LMC by the Nigeria Football Federation. So, what we should do now is to support the establishment of academies and create an environment for the private sector to own clubs as it was in the days of Abiola Babes, Leventis United, Stationery Stores, Julius Berger, Ranchers Bees, Racca Rovers, IICC and host of others.
At the moment, 90 percent of the clubs playing in the Nigeria Premier League are owned by the state government.
So what is your take on the Nigeria Premier League being managed by the League Management Committee?
I am happy with the reforms going on in the league, spearheaded by the League Management Committee and supported by the NFF.
The LMC has people with experience, but what I will advise is that they (LMC) should not put pressure on the club owners to get things done in a short period of time. They should have human face in handling the league issues and interacting with the club owners.
We are happy with what they are doing and pray that they should continue to achieve and make our league better.