Mba Ogbonnaya
2015 maiden edition of Prince Eze Madumere Athletics Championship may have ended but leaving on its trail a story of a brave amazon who by all ramifications is a prospective world champion. That great heart is an Ikeduru born Athlete, Miss Chidinma Agu.
It was a standing ovation for the 15 year old senior secondary school form one student who against all odds became overall best in every heat of female category she participated. The old and young, students and non-students, traders and artisans, Civil Servants, government appointees and the Rescue Mission family in their large numbers among others were on their toes in appreciation of the Imo talents on the tracks. In that memorable event, even the sports indifferent spectators were voluntarily and involuntarily moved to stand in honour of Imo future track and field champions.
Prince Madumere, the man behind that commendable event was not left out as he stood at every ‘heat’ to catch a glimpse of power, maneuver speed and determination with which Miss Chidinma Agu took her flights to victory on tracks.
It was a breathtaking contest among the students. Each was seen pumping so much adrenaline with youthful energy as the muscles were stretched to the fullest with a focus. But the stunts of this Queen made the difference. In all these nature gifts, she refused to lose her innocence. She maintained her disarming appeal of unassuming, calculated, respectful and charismatic personality. Her gait could pass for an adorable Princess of the walk ways with an admirable carriage and right nuances.
The physique of Ikeduru born polished dark skinned budding athletes, Agu Chidinma, a student of Holy Rosary Model Secondary School, Amaimo in Ikeduru local government, could easily give her away for one of the Kenyan Queens of the track. Though she is only 15 but has the power of an established athlete with long years of training. She proudly introduced herself as the daughter of Mr. Peter Agu, a Palm Wine tapper. That alone thrilled this writer to the point of making enquiries about her person.
Asked what she would like to become in the future, she disappointed those who hastily concluded by her performance in the tracks. Chidinma emphatically said she would like to be a Medical Doctor. Another question was what becomes of this talent in the future? For Chidinma, talent on the track is only a gift from God, which is better managed as a hobby. She also believes that everyone is multi-talented. She said her first love has always been medical practice to enable her take care of her father who has suffered so much from sicknesses.
Now that the maiden edition of Prince Eze Madumere Athletics Championship (PEMAC) has come and gone, Ms. Chidinma remains one of the greatest revelations of that noble and patriotic effort. The probing media hounds also discovered that Chidinma Agu had participated in some National track and field events. She was discovered in 2013 and ever since she has remained on top of her game. She was at Kwara youth games where she came 4th. She participated in Abuja during the first National Youth games in December 2013 where she came 3rd. In the last open games for youth in Enugu state on 22nd of March, 2015, she came 1st 100 mters heat and 2nd in 200 meters.
Speaking to the writer, the last child and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Agu of Ugiri clan in Amaimo, Ikeduru local government of Imo State revealed that she has not been training for obvious reason. I must commend Prince Eze Madumere, the Deputy Governor of Imo State for liaising with the Imo State Sports Council to raise the game and help expose these budding Queens and others who have shown so much hope for the State and the country at large.
Beyond Chidinma Agu, Chinemerem and other budding track and field stars, this singular effort of the Deputy Governor has reminded our games masters and physical and health education teachers of the need to buckle up. If one wants fame and the name of your schools the list of popular schools, this is an opportunity. Most of the institutions anywhere in the world consider sporting activities as a dependable tool to selling the pedigree of the schools. Little wonder most prestigious institutions give scholarships to high performing athletes.
Plato, Aristotle and others while proposing ideal education system towards building a virile and progressive State, sporting activities ought to be intricately married into school curriculum. In his Republic, sporting activities are woven into educational system where at the age of six, children would have begun to learn what he called the three Rs (Reading Writing and Counting). They are also to engage music and sporting activities. At eighteen, they begin to undergo physical and military training.
Deductively, it is imperative that the teachers and parents or guardians take this stage seriously for its future importance in the life of any individual and body conditioning. Sports play a major role as it concerns virtues like patience, perseverance and general discipline.
The gains of sporting activities are numerous. It is a strong tool for peace and to build cohesion and unity at both the community and National levels. With sporting activities, we build strong bodies with good defenses against deadly sicknesses like obesity, diabetes; reduces or burns dangerous cholesterols in our body. It helps us to build stamina to accomplish even greater task while engaging in productive work. Sporting activities reduces the rate of cardiac arrest and other heart related diseases.
Getting young people and children to grow of with the tradition of sports, it would only prevent any regrets over our lifestyle because they would have become their own teachers when managing their weight and body conditioning.
Sports are cultural universal. Sports are universal but differ in forms and kinds. While England could boast of the originator of football, Japan could boast of Judo, Karate, China could boast of their Kungfu, Nigeria can boast of Dambe, traditional wrestling in Igboland, the “Ichu Miri” meaning the fastest in water fetching and much more. This recently re-introduced by the First Lady of Imo State, Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha and many others she invented based on Igbo culture.
From the foregoing it could be deduced that sporting activities were meant to train the body for various purposes.
It was largely meant for military and economic purposes. It follows that sports as it were is an art, which is intricately interwoven with laid down plans for Nation building.
Today, people take up sporting activities as a career path. In truth, Sports have made more multi-millionaires in our world than any other vocation. The roll calls of those lavishly empowered by sports are in-exhaustive. In Nigeria, we have J-J Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Victor Ikpeba, Mikel Obi, Chioma Ajunwa, Chidi Imo Mary Onyali to mention but a few.
Football has dominated the sporting environment as track and field events have got so much less to be desired when a Country of over 180 million has so much talents wasting untapped.
It is therefore cheering that Prince Eze Madumere in appreciation of the unfortunate trend, resolved to fight the course through his Prince Eze Madumere Athletics Championship. He deserves all the encouragement and a pat on the back. With Prince Madumere’s wake-up call, the glory of our schools producing the best athletes in all events shall be returned.
Mr. Uche Lebechi and his company, Monarch and Co must be commended for their decision to follow the patriotic path by sponsoring the championship. They did not only spend their resources for logistics but also doled out cash prizes to the deserving athletes. Interestingly, they were also present to appreciate the fact that ‘Imo has got talents’.
In his submission, the Secretary General of Imo State Government, Sir Jude Ejiogu extolled Madumere’s bold step towards resuscitating a worthy productive tradition.
Speaking to newsmen, the number two citizens of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere said it has always been his dream to contribute in this all important area of sports. In his speech, he also said that engaging youth in sporting activities will productively keep them away from juvenile delinquency, cultism and other social vices. It could be recalled that Prince Eze Madumere instituted his Prince Eze Madumere Unity Cup, which he used a tool to rally round the youth of Mbieri for the purposes of achieving peace. After twenty-years of that effort, he has remained consistent with that vision.