Politics
By Anayo Ezugwu
VALENTINE Ozigbo, governorship aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the 2021 governorship election in Anambra State has promised that he will use sports to create jobs for the youths. He says he has personally helped in creating jobs in addition to creating opportunities and funding for the youths through empowerment schemes, sports development, and entertainment promotion.
In an exclusive interview with Realnews, Ozigbo says that as a private citizen, he organizes annual freestyle football tournaments in the state. “Since 2017, I have annually organized a freestyle football competition that has morphed from being a country-wide championship to one for the whole continent with the full backing of the World Freestyle Football Association.
“The 2020 edition is going to be unique because, for the first time, it’s going to be virtual. COVID-19 has given us new realities, and we have to move with the times, not stop. Feet’ N’ Tricks, the company I founded, is still the biggest promoter of freestyle football in Africa. I picked up freestyle football and decided to register this company with Kanu Nwankwo and others as partners after seeing a video on social media. At the 2019 edition, we had 30 countries on our Nigerian soil.
“The idea behind Feet ‘N’ Tricks is to create another platform to empower the younger ones, the youths. I recall that when I organised the Nigerian Championship for freestyle football, an Anambra person became Nigerian champion. I flew him to Poland to represent Nigeria in the global competition. He’s there to tell my story.
“I started the Ogene championship that went viral. Now we have an Ogene partner in our foundation. I then did the Mbem and Oja competition. I’ll be happy to share this rich content. You’d be shocked how this is resonating very strongly with the grassroots. I like to think that I’m one of the biggest friends of the entertainment world in Nigeria. And I say this very modestly.
“A lot of people don’t know what I’ve also done to promote entertainment. But let me share this with you. I mentioned earlier how one of the things we do in the area of talent hunt is acting. And I made sure that one of the winners of my talent hunt competitions participated in a movie that I co-produced. Today, the single most selling movie on Netflix out of Nollywood is ‘Merry Men 2’.
“And I’m an executive producer of ‘Merry Men 2’. And I got the winner of my talent hunt contest from Anambra to be in the first part of that movie, to showcase what is possible. So I thank God again that I always want to see how I can impart my people through any opportunity that I see. There are many other things I have done, and these go to prove that we have had gold on our hands covered by dust, and it is time for Anambra to shine, meaning Ka Anambra Chawapu,” he said.
– Jul. 7, 2020 @ 8:07 GMT |
Tags: How I will use sports to create jobs in Anambra – Ozigbo
