The tenure of Engr. Dayo Akindoju, the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), has been described as being better than his predecessor’s.
Before the present administration, Engr. Sani Ndanusa had held sway as the head of tennis affairs in the country for several years, a post which, among other things, paved way for wheelchair tennis in Nigeria.
But the tenure of the former Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) President has been described as being worse than the present administration.
Aminat Quadre, a Nigerian tennis player, who analysed both tenures during an interview with Nigeria Tennis Live, noted that things were really terrible in the previous administration.
“In fact, I’ll be sincere with you. Compared to the time of Ndanusa, this tenure is actually better, a bit better than the former president’s,” she began.
“Because now, we can boast of CBN, we can boast of VEMP, we can boast of Rainoil, we can boast of Dala Hard Court, that’s four.
“In Ndanusa’s time, we had just two,” Aminat, an older sibling of Nigeria’s number one female player, Oyinlomo, noted.
Even though she believes the current administration is better than the previous one, she noted that it is still a far cry from what tennis should look like in the country.
According to her: “In spite of this difference, players still go for these tournaments for different reasons because there are still very few of them.
“They go there to sell clothes, to sell slippers, just to get something. That seems even better.”
Quadre further explained some of the challenges these players face while trying to play competitions, a reason she noted is responsible for their failures on the court.
“Sometimes, you see when players go to play in a tournament and you see where they lodge; they’ll be like six-eight in a room.
“Because they always have to contribute in bits to get the room.
“The funny thing is they wake up in the morning and start having little injuries, and they won’t be able to play because they couldn’t sleep well the previous night,” she offered.
Nigeria Tennis Live will publish the remaining parts of this interview for our audience in subsequent publications, do stay tuned.