A female Inspector of Police with the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters, Airport command Lagos, Osado Betty won gold in Taekwondo at the ongoing Nigeria Police Games 2020 holding in Anambra state.
In this brief chat with South East Editor Authority Newspapers, Odogwu Emeka Odogwu after securing gold in Taekwondo, Osado Betty, a taekwondo practitioner, enthusiast, and coach calls for promotion for officers who won laurels as a motivation to continue to do the Nigerian police and Nigerian proud at international engagements. Excerpts:
You won Gold and your trainees won too, even still winning. How do you feel?
I am grateful to God. We are champions any day. We train to win. We prepare ourselves as champions. I do taekwondo. Taekwondo has been my game right from onset. From childhood, I have been practicing taekwondo since middle 80’s and now I still practice taekwondo at the international and national level. I have artists under me in the police and the national level as well.
The people I brought here are people I picked up just from other sports and also those that are pure beginners that don’t know anything about taekwondo and Martial arts. So I brought them in, watch their physique, their action and vibrancy and also how gallant they look. I brought them into this event, train them and make sure that they listen to me as well as make sure they are obedient in training and do what they are asked to do.
What has been your achievements so far?
It has been very splendid. So far so good in this particular event like taekwondo, I have got two gold medals yesterday. Personally, I got two gold medals. My boys also got two gold medals. We are the first headquarters team that got the first 4 gold medals. Today, we got another gold medal from the female middle weight category which is from Rebecca Ekpeyong. She has gotten the middle weight category female gold medal today. I train and make champions in taekwondo, because we are champions in taekwondo. So far so good, this event has been so wonderful.
One other thing I want to compliment is the organisers of the championship in Anambra state. The police game in Anambra 2020 is well organized because we have seen a lot of things different from so many police games we have been attending.
What do you think should be done to improve Martial Arts and Taekwondo in Nigeria?
Most especially, martial arts and Taekwondo in Nigeria need more technical equipment because we are using sensor. The foreigners who brought this game to us know we are very strong. We are stronger than them physically, in strength and otherwise. So they try to modify the event to suit their type of persons. So they made it so computerized and digital. So most of the equipment we are using are all computerized and digitalized and we are getting used to it.
We have very few of them and they are very expensive. There are sensor body guards we are using. It is about #100,000+ (hundred thousand naira plus) while the sensor stockings they wear is about #15,000. Then a very good uniform is from #15,000 – #20,000. You see that most of the artists are coming up and they are coming up stronger.
We need to encourage them by getting them good equipment for training, good environment for training and motivation. When you motivate athletes, they give you their best. Motivation in the sense that tips should be given to them for transportation, light feeding and also for refreshment and multi- vitamins. You can’t just eat Eba or fufu and come to train or do active sports most especially martial arts which is very rigorous. It is just like the military arts. You need to take multivitamin to build your tendons, tissues to become as strong as bones so that you can perform at optimal level. So that you don’t experience muscle tears at the early stage of career or training. With good multivitamin we can train without injuries.
Also, people should help to encourage our senior officers in the Nigeria Police Force but as it comes to this event, motivation should also be given to artists. The motivation I am talking about is mostly promotion. If you don’t give an active sports policeman money, he can’t use his own salary to buy multivitamin, buy good food or even get good training but when you want to encourage that person, promote that officer. We want you to transfer this message to Inspector General of Police (IGP) that as we finish this Anambra Police Games 2020, gold medallists and silver medallists should be promoted and the bronze medallists alongside other participants should be given recommendations.
How has it being as a woman in this profession?
As a woman, when it comes to martial arts, generally it is determination, zeal and pure adrenalin flowing. It is not a gender thing. I have fought and competed with pregnancies. In 2013, I was carrying pregnancy. I competed with it and won a gold medal. I won team gold medal and I gave birth the next day. So determination is the zeal that goes on in you. There is no challenge except when we say sports injury which is general in all sports. If you have your ideas and second thought for sports injuries, then you should guide yourself against it.
