ABU wins Olumide Oyedeji Intercollegiate basketball competition

Honeywell seeks government attention for sport
It was thrills and glamour for basketball lovers at the weekend, as the final of the 2017 Olumide Oyedeji Intercollegiate Basketball competition ended at the Indoor Sports Hall of University of Lagos.

In the final match, the boys from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) proved too-difficult-a-nut-to-crack for their challengers from Niger State College of Education, Minna. The lads from Zaria won the encounter 79-88.

Earlier in the third place match, University of Lagos (UNILAG) outplayed their counterparts from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, 77-55. It was an eight-team tournament.

Coach of UNILAG Basketball team, Okolo Emmanuel told The Guardian that the competition would afford the teams the chance to prepare well for this year’s NUGA Games scheduled for Makurdi, as well as the West African University Games slated for UNIPORT.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr. Olanrewaju Jaiyeola has solicited more government support and attention for basketball, saying a brighter future awaits the game in Nigeria going by the performance of players at the 2017 Olumide Oyedeji Intercollegiate Basketball competition.

He described the competition as a huge success, adding that the game would improve tremendously if government gave it proper attention.

He was highly impressed at the performance of the teams, saying it gave hope that there was a brighter future for basketball in Nigeria.

Explaining Honeywell’s sponsorship of the competition, Jaiyeola said: “In efforts to make the society feel our impacts, we have made basketball a choice, not just to discover talents, but also to build talents.

“Beyond that, it is also to remove the youths from the streets, from social vices and make them have a direction to realize a dream by building a career.”

He pledged that Honeywell will continue to support good causes, especially those that has to do with grassroots development in sports.

“Our focus is to support every activity that will take the youth away from negative vices… we consider this yet another social responsibility, which falls under the three pedestals that we have positioned ourselves as a company to operate in.

“The first is education, and you will agree with me that sport comes under education. It is a way of developing the mind of the youth… it is a way of identifying and promoting expertise and developing the youth in their chosen sport, so for us these is yet another opportunity to partner with Olumide Oyedeji, who himself was an ex international NBA player but also to support the state and indeed the country in developing basketball and sports in Nigeria.

“Apart from basketball, we also participate in various areas of sporting activities especially in schools, we promote inter house sports, just name it, everything about educating the child we are there. This is yet another opportunity to support the development of sport in Nigeria,” he stated.