By Eric Ojo
Current World Netball Ambassador, Mary Waya has reaffirmed her commitment to promote the development of netball in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
Waya is the ex-Tanzania, Namibia, and Malawi national netball coach. She is also a former coach of Mavericks Netball Team of England, a team that plays in the Netball Super League.
She gave the assurance during a telephone chat with a Trustee of Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative, the sport for change Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that is currently blazing the trail for the development of netball at the grassroots and school levels in Nigeria.
She also expressed her willingness and determination to support the game of netball at the grassroots, schools and community levels in the West African country, with the ultimate goal of leading to the emergence of netball clubs in future.
The global netball ambassador further explained that her future focus in respect of supporting the development of the game in Nigeria is to nurture and develop more Netball Africa certified coaches, as well as develop the netball umpires and administrators who will take Nigerian netball to the next level.
Waya said she is willing to visit Nigeria soon in her capacity as a Netball Africa trainer to support the developmental work of CSED Initiative and any other NGO or government agency with passion and technical knowledge and use netball to develop the potentials of the girl child in Nigeria.
She equally stressed that she is particularly pleased to know that CSED Initiative has started discussion with the Department of Human Kinetics and Sports Science of University of Benin and University of Uyo with a view of collaborating with them in respect of introducing a certificate programme in netball, as well as piloting an online sport for change course that would be specifically targeted at female teachers and female athletes.
Notably, the two university departments would also be supported to carry out research on how sport for change practitioners could use netball and other sports to support, safeguard, and empower vulnerable persons, such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), wards of the state, and refugees in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that in March 2020, Waya facilitated the training and Netball Africa certification of 24 Nigerians, as netball coaches. At the time, she visited Nigeria in March 2020, Nigeria had just recorded her first few cases of Covid-19.
She defied Covid-19 in order to lay the foundation for the revival of netball in Nigeria. At that point in time, netball in Nigeria was not only in a state of coma, it was like a patient in an isolation ward that has been abandoned to die an untimely death.
After the post- Covid-19 restriction was lifted in Nigeria, and normalcy gradually returned to the sport and education sectors, CSED Initiative started its Project 2027 grassroots netball development programme in July 2022.
The major goals of the project are to bring the game of netball to the awareness of one million Nigerian school children, train and equip one thousand two hundred Physical Education (P.E.) Teachers in netball, and through the process promote the right to play netball of the Nigerian school girls.
Till date, CSED Initiative through this laudable programme has trained and equipped more than 350 P.E. Teachers, athletes, and community youths to become netball coaches.
Interestingly, the trained netball coaches have subsequently introduced netball to school students in seven states in Nigeria. The next state on the Project 2027 netball tour is going to be Cross River State.
Waya further emphasized that her goal is to see that the foundation she laid in March 2020 is built upon by credible Nigerians who have the game of netball at heart.