Bringing Netball Back (BNB) in collaboration with the Lagos state sports commission organised a West African Club competition between BNB Lagos and Golden Maidens Accra to celebrate Nigeria’s 57th independence anniversary on Sunday, 1st of October.
BNB is a netball club in Lagos aimed at providing girls and women the opportunity to learn and play netball while also improving the awareness of the sport in Nigeria. The independence day special took place between BNB Club of Lagos, Nigeria and Golden Maidens of Accra, Ghana. After four quarters of battle, the game ended 44-16 in favor of Golden Maidens Accra, Ghana.
“It’s a very good initiative, started by BNB Club of Lagos, Nigeria. Ghana formed a Netball club named Golden Hands and it was used as a vehicle to revive netball in Ghana and now, BNB is trying to revive netball in Nigeria by introducing it to the schools at all levels.” Rev. Emmanuel Nikoi – President of the Ghana Netball Federation said about BNB Club of Lagos.
He added that the event would not be a one-off that henceforth, at the Independence of Ghana (6th of March) BNB Club would go and compete in Accra and vice-versa.
On developing netball in Africa Rev. Emmanuel suggested that a West African netball union be formed so that there is an annual West African netball competition to gauge the progress of the technical personnel. He also mentioned that the countries exchange technical personnel to improve themselves.
Finally, on winning in Nigeria on Independence Day he reacted with laughter saying ”We congratulate you on the celebration of your 57th independence anniversary. That means you should buckle up so that you will catch up with us. Any thing Ghana vs Nigeria, there is high competition. We beat you in the WAFU Cup, we beat you in the Nigeria independence anniversary netball tournament and we are hoping that we will repeat this next year March in Ghana so BNB should try to come up.”
