Daily Independent (Lagos)
Uzor Odigbo
10 June 2011
When a young man is blessed with enormous strength and vitality and uses it to the limit, people begin to wonder about the secret of his strength. For this businessman and grassroots sports promoter, his physical strength is from daily exercises.
Anyone from the old Bendel State will not forget Osa-Dennis High School, Asaba, in Delta state. An institution reputed for sports excellence and high discipline standards.
The school has produced good sportsmen and women who are today dictating the pace in various sports endeavours as active performers and sponsors.
To this end, it was this high discipline standards and passion for sports that propelled the chairman, Collins Edwin Global Sports Limited, Nwokeabia Ossy, to an enviable height and was counted among those who work assiduously for the growth of sports in Lagos State.
But this is not the main issue of the interview as we are interested in what keeps Nwokeabia, a businessman who works round the clock and still feels he has just started, actively engaged in this energy sapping activity.
‘My fitness secrets usually come from constant exercises, ‘I don’t miss exercise especially every weekend because I have a mini-gym in my house.’
He stressed that walking around while carrying out his daily routine could also be a form of exercise. For him, exercise is very important in everyone’s life.
‘Many may feel that those of us that keep our body fit through regular exercises are wasting money, but when you ask people how much they spend any time they visit a doctor, you would be amazed to hear the kind of money they commit on health issues, but these are things one can avoid by engaging in simple exercise.’
He is a football buff and plays the game for fitness purposes and jogs the ball several times before leaving his house, having played the game during his schools days at Osa-Dennis High School, in Oshimili LGA in Delta state.
‘Jogging the ball has formed part of my exercise routine, when I’m tired of working out in the gym, I would just pick a ball and jog several times and before you know it, I’ve sweated enough for the day.’
According to him, fitness of the body comes from the inside; when one is burdened and it appears one is carrying a heavy load, there must the exercise of the mind to put away such burden; without this, the body won’t gain total fitness. Divine intervention, he said is also important in relieving the burden of the mind.
In the same token, body exercises without using the right tools can be frustrating. While some like using music, others take a cue from their instructor dictating the pace of the exercise. He noted that anyway one chooses, it is important to realise that healthy living emanates from the mind and the body responds.
Nwokeabia advised people who take the importance of fitness lightly that technology teaches that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body; in the absence of a healthy body, the mind would not thrive, therefore, body exercises become paramount in our daily living and should not be compromised.
‘Not all that play football take it further to another level, like myself, I played the game in secondary school but could not advance after that, but I took with me the benefits of jogging with a football and it has helped in my fitness routine.
I deal in sport equipments and also sponsor youth competitions; all these activities put a lot of strains on me, but when I consider what these youths would benefit by playing football, the pressure becomes less, he said.
Nwokeabia is currently sponsoring a tournament involving eight teams from the National League. Eight female teams from Lagos State qualified through the zonal elimination held across the state and some of the clubs played in the National Amateur League.
The championship would serve as an avenue to select players capable of representing Lagos State at the forthcoming National Sports Festival, which is billed to hold in Port Harcourt. The National Sports Festival is an annual event scheduled to hold later this year between October and November. “You know that the festival is around the corner and the best way to do well in any event is to prepare well for it. We are using this opportunity to groom the girls and pick those that would be good enough for the sport festival,” said Nwokeabia, who is also a patron to the contingent that will make up the Lagos State Women’s Football Team to the National Sport Festival.
He also stressed the need to give players in the grassroots the opportunity to compete and thus improve on their skills. “That was the aim of this Women Football Tournament,” he said, noting that sport at the grass roots has been neglected for a long time. Edwin has been involved in sports development for the past six years; however, the maiden edition of the women championship took place last year. That edition was won by Puma Football Club.
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Nigeria: Exercise is my Fitness Secret, Says Nwokeabia