The Principal, Queen’s College, Lagos, Tokumbo Yakubu-Oyinloye, has called on corporate organsations to partner more with institutions in thee development of sports, especially volleyball and handball.
Yakubu-Oyinloye said this in Lagos, during the finals of the 2019 GTB Masters Cup, Season Eight. The football competition was between two Lagos-based teams, the defending champions, Queen’s College and Leadford College.
According to her, there are many sporting activities waiting to be developed at the grassroots level, adding that it is time for more corporate organisations to see how they could bring them to limelight.
“Often times, we see support coming in the areas of football and basketball, but I feel there should be a spread in an effort to showcase and discover abundant skills in our students.
“We should start encouraging other sports to grow at the grassroots level in a bid to have well-developed all-round students who can represent this country one day at the global level and make a living out of it,” she said.
On the football competition that ended 1-0 in favour of Leadford College, the principal said Queens College remains a formidable team. “We came to this game as the defending champions. We have actually won the game six times back-to-back. But we are hopeful that we will claim our rightful position in the next edition of this competition because Queen’s College is champion and we will always remain champion in female football at the secondary schools level.
“This time around, we came second with prize money of N500,000. We will always recognise that we are a better opponent and as a result, many people are chasing after us.
“Women generally are beginning to do a lot of what their male counterparts are doing; today we have women pilot, astraunuts and other life’s endeavour that were hitherto percieved as being exclusively meant for the men folk.
“It is the same thing we are experiencing now with female football. It is not just using this kind of sporting activity to build the body physically and create mental alertness, but it is a means of fostering camaderieship among students”, she said.
Chief Oladele Olapeju, the Chairman of the Lagos First Generation Heritage Colleges Association, organisers of the competition, said the competition was a sign of great things to come in female football.
Olapeju, a former Principal, King’s College, Lagos, expressed hope that the girls who participated in the competition would find their way in bigger leagues across the world.
“Today, we have seen the best of soccer, I am happy that female football is developing rapidly in Nigeria. I also like to say that in the nearest future, I want to see these girls go into some of the big leagues, playing for the country and making a good living out of it.
“All we need is more support to be able to discover talents in various sports at this level and go ahead to harness and showcase them to the world,” he said.
The winning team received a prize money of N750,000, while the third place got N350,000.
