A female coach, Adesewa Adegunwa, has called for the participation of more women in sports administration, to curtail abuses and promote women in sports.
Adegunwa made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 50th anniversary and 9th Convocation Ceremony of Nigeria Institute for Sports (NIS).
The ceremony, which held at the NIS Hall in the National Stadium Lagos, attracted several dignitaries including a former governor of Plateau, Simon Lalong, and Chairman, National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, among others.
Adegunwa, a former footballer, now a coach and one of the graduates in Sports Management at NIS, said encouraging more women in sports administration would encourage women in the sector.
“My time at NIS has opened my eyes to lots of things and I have learnt so many things especially as it relates with the participation of women in sports.
“I am a football coach, so, I came to improve my knowledge by studying Sports Management,” she said.
The female coach said that more women sports administrators were needed, so that issues that concern women could be addressed from a position of knowledge.
“We already have females in sports, but we need more women in sports administration, to handle issues that concern female athletes especially in football.
“This is because women are the ones that can understand the issues and challenges of their gender better.
“If we allow women to handle certain aspects of sports, we are going to get the best out of them and women in sports will performance better,” she said.
Adegunwa, however, explained that there were many other issues women may feel shy to discuss with male administrators but would be more comfortable to speak with female ones.
The former Pepsi Academy footballer also said that encouraging more females in sports would also help to enlighten parents, who often do not allow their female children to engage in sports.
“For me, I played for Pepsi Academy, and I almost stopped playing because of the opposition from home; I was faced with serious rejection for playing football.
“Back then there was no enlightenment about women in sports, so the parents of those years did not want their female children to engage in it.
“In my own case, my mum came to the stadium to disgrace me while playing; she slapped me in the presence of everybody.
“My mother did that because she lacked the knowledge of what I could become in sports, I did not blame her,” Adegunwa said.
She, however, added that parents were now better enlightened about having women in sports.
“A lot of my friends are now in sports, but now we need more in football.
The ex-footballer said that allowing more women in sports administration would also curb abuse of females in the sector, adding that she had an encounter with a male coach.
She explained that the coach would complain about everything she did then, subjecting her to emotional blackmail, adding that if she had a female coach things would have been different.
She, however, added that female teams being handled by female coaches perform better.