Daily Trust explains decision to invest in Nigerian golf

• Players, officials eulogise sponsors for creating avenue for national bonding

Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust Newspapers, have described golf as one of the ways of cementing and promoting peaceful co-existence among the diverse peoples of Nigeria.

The company, which sponsors the yearly Daily Trust Golf Tournament, said at the weekend in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, that it would continue to promote the competition as a way of sustaining and promote the country’s unity.

Speaking at the prize giving ceremony of the 2021 edition of the competition held at the Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, chairman, board of directors of Media Trust, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, said the company wants to sustain the tournament because of its strong belief that it could help foster the national unity.

Speaking through the company’s General Manager, Business Strategy, Ahmed Shekarau, Malam Yusuf said: “We know that golf is one of the veritable platforms for networking. It has become a source of unity for our citizens. You see the kind of people that converge in this place, coming down to play here, Nigerians can come together and promoting unity among Nigerians.

“If we can come together and play golf, why not extend that sense of unity to other platforms.

“We have ethnic, religious crisis. And Daily Trust has strongly established itself but largely known in the North, but we feel that it is high time we began to move South so that the sense of unity we have been able to foster on golf course… discharge that kind of responsibility.”

Admitting that there are challenges in organising such tourneys, Yusuf, however, expressed the hope that the partners will continue to support the newspaper to sustain golf tournaments in the country.

“It is a yearly event, and we want to sustain it, of course we know that organising a tournament like this is very challenging, but we have a strong feeling that our partners will continue to give us their support.”

Earlier, Captain of Ibom Golf Club, Usenobong Akpabio, in his welcome remarks, expressed appreciation to Media Trust Limited for organising the tournament and called on other Nigerian newspapers to emulate the organisation.

“I want to thank Daily Trust for what they have done, and we wish that other publishing outfits that are even more established than the organisation, can do this.

“As far as I am concerned, if you think golf is not sports, you can also think that it is entertainment. It was very entertaining, and very challenging,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, one of the players and former governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Idris Wadda, said, “I am honoured to be at Ibom Icon Golf Course this evening. I thank God and I thank Media Trust Limited for the opportunity to play golf here today. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I didn’t play as well as I would have normally played, but I enjoyed the company of Alhaji Kabiru, and Peter from Port Harcourt. It was a unique experience for me.”

Winners in various categories got prizes at the ceremony, which was supported by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Navy, among others.