for the Nigerian sporting world that is...
After Nigeria's disappointing show at the African Nations Cup (I had to return my green-white-green victory gear back to the recesses of my closet), I began to give up on seeking national pride in sports. Well, I (and several other Naija bloggers) are proud to report differently.
This weekend Akwa Ibom native, Samuel Okon Peter clinched the World Boxing Council's (WBC) Heavyweight title in a sixth round knockout. Personally, the only time I have enjoyed boxing is when he is featured as one of the contenders so I am not sure of all of the boxing terms. All I know is that the opponent went down in the sixth round.
He was featured in The Guardian today, and I found his story to be very inspiring. Dig one of the statements he made to the reporters.
"I have been doing this for about seven years now professionally; I have never been down in my career. I have been knocked down but I stand up to win."
I will definitely keep this one in memory, and I think as a nation, we should realize that our past has been rough - colonialism, civil war, losing the African Nations Cup (I mean that light-heartedly) - and we have been knocked down on several occasions. However, we should take a page out of Peter's playbook that though we have been knocked down, we should continue to stand up to win. I am very much for taking a critical stance on Nigerian national affairs, but let's not just leave at that, criticism. Rather, there should be a hope that through journalism, blogging, activism, going to work every morning etc. we can all inch our ways towards a knockout future. (I apologize in advance if this seems overly-idealistic, but hey, I'm young and it's my prerogative).
5 comments:
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nice, inspiring. I don't think its over idealistic either. And Nigerian certainly needs some idealists. How yu dey
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Great post, thanks for the inspiration. I hadn't even heard of him before this match so i'm all for celebrating his success...i still remember those days of Mary Onyali. We should definitely have some sort of Nigerian sports hall of fame - perhaps a wax museum or sth, as i'm sure most of these rising stars (samuel peter, emeka okafor, etc) and even the seasoned ones would be more than happy to go home to pose for wax statues or photos/ cement cast handprints (a la Hollywood Walk of Fame)...anyone know someone who'd be interested in taking this up back home?
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Now the police and the akwa ibom state government are jostling to claim him as "our son"
@the afrobeat
true talk...
first time to this blog. thanks for dropping by at mine. It took me awhile to understand the pure water ref... im not the brightest candle some times
nice blog
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@gn and ftlom - i happy that it inspired...it really inspired me as well.
@theafrobeat - i like the idea alot. now all we need to do is find a rich avid Nigerian sports fan who is willing to shell out some money towards this effort. Or have those in government who oversee the tourism industry to get on such a project.
@pam - no problem - i'm not the brightest candle either. it took me some time to come up with the pyoo wata reference. lol
it is your perogative, although i don't think it is over-idealistic...we must dream and dream big or go home...i think his quote is a great quote...thanks for the inspiration for the week...