By Donald Agbavobor
The days when the game of Table Tennis played second fiddle to other sports in the country will soon be long gone, as a candidate in the upcoming zonal elections into the board of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Dr. Shaibu Mohammed has promised to ensure more competitions are staged and more funds channeled towards the welfare of players and coaches.
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Dr. Mohammed, who is the chairman of the Kogi State Table Tennis Association, is hoping to get the nod to represent the North Central zone on the board of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation.
Speaking on an online forum with journalists on Monday, he said one of his main priorities will be to empower coaches in the region to make them give their best at all times.
According to Dr. Mohammed, without good coaches there will be no good players, so he will be giving them all the support and incentives needed to perform. And these will include receiving adequate training both at home and abroad and ensuring equitable distribution of the federation funds that will see the coaches get at least 40% of the allocated resources, with 60% going to the players.
He also plans to increase the number of competitions in the region by leveraging on his network of friends and everybody interested in the game of table tennis to organize competitions in their names to give players in the region more platforms to display their skills.
The zonal elections into the board of the national sports federations will hold on the 9th of August.