Nigeria’s women football sector and the entire community of the round leather game in the country was thrown into mourning on Tuesday, following news about the death of a renowned advocate for the game, Henrietta Ukaigwe, megasportsarena.com reports.
The late Ukaigwe was a renowned journalist and pioneer of the trailblazing Female Football Interest Group (FFIG) that first raised a voice for better attention to the women’s sector and rolled out efforts in furthering enhanced awareness for ladies that engage in active soccer.
The advent of FFIG in 1997 provided ground for specialized club competitions in female football on a wider scope, with their impact spreading from the grassroots to the national league as well as continentally and globally.
Along with Dare Joseph, Dapo Sotiminu and Harry Awurimibe, Ukaigwe helped lift the banner higher for women’s football in the country by involving coaches, players, fans, journalists, administrators and corporate bodies in various promotional ventures.
She was also the pillar on which former hermaphrodite, Iyabo Abade found an end to her plight and got public sympathy that eventually led to sponsorship of a sex change surgery that made the former national team star become a man, who is now named Johnson.
Ukaigwe was also known for many other efforts in supporting the growth and spread of women in soccer, such that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) aptly led the way in mourning the lady of esteem, who was until her death a member of the board of the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL).
The NFF’s media unit noted in a tribute to Ukaigwe that she was for several decades in the forefront of promoting women’s football in Nigeria and even beyond the country’s shores, while also playing a key role in further developing the game from the 1990s, as Nigeria’s Super Falcons dominated the African game and became a permanent fixture in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The NFF communications department added: “The Imo State –born journalist was at the head of a corps of women’s football-passionate reporters and stakeholders who birthed the Female Football Interest Group, comprising a number of individuals who actively promoted and energetically projected the women’s game and made it an item of consequence in the media and public space across the nation from the nineties.
“This group did not only report the game; it coalesced efforts and resources to organize women’s football tournaments and provided much-needed stout and meaningful support to administrators at that incipient stage.
“They also worked assiduously with the precursor-proprietors, including Chief (Mrs) Simbiat Abiola, Alhaja Ayo Omidiran, Elder Eddington Kuejubola, Princess Bola Jegede, Chief Christopher Abisuga, Mr. Larry Eze, Alhaja Rashidat Oladimeji and Chief (Mrs) Gina Yeseibo to stoke serious interest and mainstream support for the game even before a league was launched.
“Their efforts reaped bounteous rewards, as Nigeria and other African countries raised women’s national teams at senior, intermediate and junior levels to compete in competitions that FIFA launched with only moderate expectations.
“Today, Nigeria’s domestic women’s football has 20 clubs in the premier division, with 12 in the pro division and dozens in the amateur cadre, counting both registered and unregistered teams. Nationally, the Super Falcons, Falconets and Flamingos are fixtures at their different FIFA tournaments, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup and the FIFA U17 Women’s Cup have carved their own niche and continue to thrive.
“Ukaigwe worked at the Vanguard Newspapers, MINAJ Broadcasting Service, Super Screen television and a couple of other media houses before serving as Co-ordinator of the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons. A couple of years ago, she was appointed into the Board of the Nigeria Women Football League headed by another ace promoter of the women’s game, Aisha Falode.
NFF general secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi concluded: “The death of Henrietta Ukaigwe is a devastating blow to the game of women’s football in Nigeria. We are still in rude shock at her premature departure, but we collectively take solace in the fact that she left her formidable footprints in the sands of time. We pray that God will give her eternal rest and also grant those she has left behind the fortitude to bear the big loss.”
