Ajala Reflects On Achievements In Sports At Ghetto Tigers/Odi-olowo Ojuwoye Sports Awards
By Saheed Afolabi
Chairman of Odi-olowo Ojuwoye LCDA, Mr Rasaq Ajala is optimistic his achievements in sports in the community have had great impact in the youths while taking them away from drugs.
Over 35 awards were given out to athletes, coaches and sport personalities. The Director General of the Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC), Lekan Fatodu was awarded the Sports Icon of the year, vice chairman of Odi-olowo Ojuwoye LCDA, Seyi Jakande was awarded the Distinguished Sportsman of the year and Mrs Muibat Ajala, Sports mother of the year among others.
The council boss who was awarded the Sportsman of the year in Lagos state said the award ceremony is a way to reward the exceptional talents in the community while providing a legal platform to the youths to earn a living and become patriotic to the country.
“It’s just to appreciate them, to let them know that they can use this platform to be a patriotic Nigerian and responsible parents. To us we believe that one of the verifiable platform we can actually leverage on to give meaningful and sustainable platform to our youths is through sport.
“If you look around, we have four dominant sports in Odi-olowo Ojuwoye LCDA that our people love and engage in it which is football, basketball, table tennis and boxing.”
Ajala is convinced that he has been able to use sports to correct the negative narrative on Mushin and Odi-olowo Ojuwoye LCDA to a positive light where the youths have abandoned criminal activities and redirect their energy to having a meaningful impact in the community through sports.
He’s however delighted that numerous sport competitions that he pioneered as chairman of Odi-olowo Ojuwoye LCDA have positively impacted the community where games are created for the youths and also the elders competing in board games.
“If you look at the perception of people about Mushin, they believe Mushin is about negativity but with sports we can actually leverage on it and let the people know about the capacity of our youth and let the people know we have what it takes to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation. We are telling our youths that they have the energy, instead of using the energy to terrorize the residents of the local government, they should direct the energy to sports and project the local government positively to the members of the public.
“Every December we organize the Odi-olowo Ojuwoye Sports Fiesta which is spread around around multiple sports including the traditional Ayo Olopon table game which we use in carrying the elders in the community together. Studies have shown that there’s surge in criminal activities during Yuletide period, so by organizing this Sport Fiesta is to redirect the focus of our youths which ordinarily they would have involved in one form of criminality or the other.
“We are constructing standard football pitch at Ilupeju Secondary School (Ilusec) that’s due for commissioning before May. Just last year, we took some our male players to Sweden and their female counterpart will be taken to Denmark this year.”