The newly re-elected board of the Nigeria Archery Federation says they are leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that Archery takes its rightful position in Nigeria sporting space.

Speaking exclusively with www.timeline.ng, President of the Federation, Abdulahi Muhammed noted that part of their plans is to ensure that their Archers participate more in international competitions.

You may want to recall that the board was re-elected for another four year in office in an election that took place in Abuja just recently. Muhammed who expressed joy for returning as the board president noted that the new board would consolidate on the achievements recorded in their first tenure while having their eye on the international scene too.

“Nigerians will see so much given the program that we have and have adopted for the year, and in addition to that we would be participating in more international competitions now because we believe we are actually approaching the crossroad where we need to move forward.

“We kick-started the process of going to international competitions from 2022 so to say. So it’s about two years now that we entered the international level and we have seen also our level of performances which of course is not a bad one.

So, this year we are going to dwell so much on international participation while we still continue with the local programs and training, competitions, club sides events, interstate competitions and the rest of it. So, this year we will be doing something different, trying to target the next All Africa Games and the Olympics."

The newly re-elected President however admitted that the challenges of taking the game of Archery to the grassroots is much, while maintaining that the high cost of the equipment makes it practically difficult for any who is who to just dabble into the game.

“Talking about grassroots, it’s not easy going to the grassroots. You just talked about equipment now. When you start with the right equipment it gives you an advantage over somebody who will start with less standard equipment.

Archery, being a very expensive game to do, you know that one bow and a set of arrows may even cost you up to four thousand dollars. So, it’s not a thing that you go to the backyard and want to do, no! It takes a lot of fortune and finances to actually be a complete Archer.

If he is well kitted with his complete equipment, it’s not pocket friendly. But, today you can see that because of the passion and the interest for the sports, virtually everybody want to be an archer. So, we have to devise a means to say, fine, let’s make it more pocket friendly by improvising.

So, we have few people who will fabricate for you but even at that it comes with an even higher cost that is still not pocket friendly. So, it takes only somebody who has the passion, who has the interest, who loves the game, to actually want to be an archer.

“Secondly, there is secondary funding, it might not be you that is buying directly like the defence headquarters, the Nigeria Police are doing, like the Nigerian Navy is also doing, the Immigration.

The institutions see that their personnel love this game so much, and they can see the future in it, because as we talk now, the Africa Military sports organisation is featuring Archery in this year edition. So, that tells you how serious the military and para military are in the promotion of the sports.”

Also emerging at the election was Ambassador Augustine Chigbolu, who was elected the 1st vice president. And speaking with our correspondent, he noted that he would use whatever connection he has abroad to ensure that Nigeria Archers benefit from some exchange programs which he hopes to facilitate.

“Like the President has said, our focus is to ensure that our archers participate more in international championships. That is where I will really be of use to the board.

I will use the little contacts I have abroad to facilitate exchange programs for our archers, because it’s through programs like this that our archers can increase their knowledge and gain more exposure,” he said.