The President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation says he believes Kebbi State has potential in taekwondo ©Getty Images

Nigeria Taekwondo Federation President Sa’idu Abdullahi said he believes Kebbi State has potential in taekwondo, after presenting awards to winners of the taekwondo kids competition at the Haliru Abdu Stadium in Birnin Kebbi.

Abdullahi presented gifts, certificates and medals to winners of the competition, organised by the Kebbi Taekwondo Academy, as reported by The Voice of Nigeria.

"What you see here today is a 10-year dream," said Abdullahi.

"For the past 10 years we have been developing this academy and the essence is to help build taekwondo at the grassroots level and the only way we can do that is to catch them young.

"So, we established this academy to educate, train and teach our own children the art of taekwondo sport and taekwondo self-defense. 

"What you are seeing today is the first ever taekwondo kids competition in Kebbi State."

As part of plans to develop taekwondo in the state, two competitions are scheduled to be held in Kebbi during 2023 - a Kebbi National Open Championship in September and the Inspector General of Police National Taekwondo Championship in November.

Abdullahi says he hopes the competitions will give local athletes the opportunity to improve their taekwondo skills.

Two taekwondo competitions are set to be held in Kebbi State in 2023, with the hope of developing the sport in the area and potentially unearthing Olympic champions of the future ©Getty Images
Two taekwondo competitions are set to be held in Kebbi State in 2023, with the hope of developing the sport in the area and potentially unearthing Olympic champions of the future ©Getty Images

Speaking about the wider development of sports in Nigeria, Abdullahi added: "The State Government should be able to reach out to people like us who are philanthropists and have passion for sports so that we can partner with Government in moving sports forward in Kebbi State.

"Kebbi State has a lot of potential not just in taekwondo but in all sports, but they are just there lying untapped.

"Remember, you can use sports to take youths away from social vices, so engage the youths more in sports, the rest will be history.

"For the academy we’ve just started a year ago, but for the structure it took us almost 10 to 11 years to get it to the standard it is today.

"These kids you are seeing today are future national champions and Olympic hopefuls for Nigeria."

Acting permanent secretary of Kebbi State Ministry of Youths and Sports Usman Ladan said the competition was "amazing" and the talent shown by the children signalled a "brighter future" for them in their sporting careers.

Ladan confirmed that the Federal Government had a policy on sports, and that taekwondo was included within this.