By Juliana Nwachukwu
The President, Onitsha Country Club, Fegge, Onitsha South Local Government Area, Anambra State, Chief Anietonwa Kingsley Ajulufo has solicited for financial support from the State government for the building of table tennis academy within the premises.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Ajulufo disclosed that his major challenge is funding, stressing that the building of the tennis academy is his priority for now, and urged the government, corporate organizations and other good spirited individuals to come to his rescue adding that he welcomes partnership in sporting activities.
“We want to also build a miniature football pitch, swimming pool, 400 capacity pavilion, once we have that pavilion, we will be able to host national track put, all these will cost money, we need to raise money for the projects.
“I want to start this year and should be able to finish it in the next six months, we have started calling on the philanthropists around and the entrepreneurs to come and assist us so that we can be able to achieve that.
“The government should come and support me in the sports academy, pavilion, once I finish the pavilion , I will bring in the kids of fegge and environs and train them for free, tomorrow they will have impact in sports as far as Anambra State is concern because they will compete with various secondary schools and from there they can represent the state government.
“We have not been able to enjoy any financial support from the government, everything here is from our members and at a time I start pitying for those members that are bringing all the money. The economy is so bad and I’m also reaching out, last year, we had to reach out for a sport club in Australia for a grant which is still on the process”, he disclosed.
On his vision, the president who is in his second tenure of two years, disclosed that he wants to make the club the number one in the East of the Niger, pointing out that he wants to make improvement on infrastructural development and bring in more new sports into the club, so that one can make a choice.
He also revealed that they have done a lot in the last two years, raising the sports hall which used to be a ground floor to now one storey building and was built and commissioned last year and houses the gym section, table tennis snooker and the summer.
“When I came into office, the club didn’t have a bus, I was able to buy 30 seater coaster for the club. As of last year, two of these courts were abandoned because people were not using them, so I upgraded four table tennis courts, renovated the squash hall to standard state of art and we hope to do more before the elapse of our tenure.”Ajulufo posited.
The four time consecutive champion tennis league club which won at the just concluded Fada Pita Charity Lawn Tennis Tournament, an annual tournament that is played by all the clubs in Anambra State according to the president, is trying to see how they would give back to the immediate community which is their dream.
On the magic wand behind the four time champion, Ajulufo disclosed, “Once it comes to do with tennis, the country club is the club that doesn’t joke once it comes to anything competition, go to any club, they will tell you once it is competition, don’t say you are joking with Onitsha Country Club.
“Even if, it is one toothpaste that is the championship prize, we will always take it serious and in all the years we have played Fada Pita Tennis Tournament, this year is the toughest year both emotionally. We were drained spiritually, but we give thanks to God that we can be able to lift the championship again for the 4th time.
“By toughest I mean, internally from the technical committee, we are having some hitches with some of our players, during the preliminary, six of our points were withdrawn because they said we used a player that was not eligible to play.
“Along the line, a lot of things were happening, some of our players were dropped and they started playing for other clubs and we were already in the tournament, there was no way we could go back, even at the time when they deducted our six points, most of our players said we should boycott the tournament, I advised them and we continued, that was how we did it,”; he further disclosed.
On his advice to parents, he said” Support your child once you see him/her interested in a particular sport as long as it is not what would affect his education, because you don’t know what awaits him in the future.
“Some of these athletes earning the highest money in the world still went to school but after school, they excell in those sports and will be making a living for themselves and the community,” Ajulufo stated.
He encouraged people to play table tennis because it is a game for the elites, adding that most of the athletes playing tennis are the richest in the world because they started early, noting that here we don’t start early and that prompted the idea to have the academy so that they can be able to catch them young and train them hard.
