Student uses football to promote university to young Nigerians

A student has organised a football tournament for his former school in Nigeria in a bid to promote GCU as a destination for senior pupils.

Edose Osime is due to graduate from the MSc International Business Management course in July and wants other children from his secondary school, Uniben Demonstration Secondary School, to benefit in the same way he has.

Through a combination of his love for football and passion for education, Edose came up with the idea of organising a tournament for pupils aged 14-16.

“I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing, but logistically and financially it was a challenge,” explained Edose.

“I left school in 2010 and only began to have more money when I came to Scotland. This gave me the opportunity to give something back to Nigeria and my local community. I wanted to promote sport within the school since they haven’t been able to host a football event for a long time because of financial issues. My course at GCU has given me so much and I wanted to use my skills to help create this event in Nigeria.

“To help promote the event, I created an e-banner with my own personal brand on Instagram, Prolific Sports Development. The GCU logo featured on the e-banner because these students are due to leave school soon and consider their future options. I wanted to make them aware that GCU is a welcoming place for Nigerians.”

Despite the challenges of planning a tournament from the other side of the world, the event proved to be a success. A total of 60 pupils from the school’s four house groups - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow - came up against each other over the course of three days in March, with the eventual winner decided in a grand final held on the school’s football pitch.

Edose said: “I basically contacted a guy that was in my year at school, he now works there as a teacher. I explained what I wanted to do and thankfully he was fully supportive. I’m very grateful to him and all the other staff members involved for helping make this a reality.

“The four house groups went up against each other and eventually they ended up with a bronze medal match and a cup final. Each team had 15 players so it was great that we managed to get proper 11-a-side matches.”

Edose has expanded his vision further and wants to now turn his focus to encouraging young females in his home country to get involved in football.

He explained: “Everything comes back to grassroots football and giving young boys and young girls the opportunity to play. One of my other main goals is to have a female football tournament because there is a real gap in female sports across Nigeria.

“Women’s football is not popular in Nigeria. We didn’t have any girls really wanting to play in the tournament at the school because there isn’t that level of interest there due to lack of role models. Sometimes a league season starts and then stops halfway through because there is a lack of investment in the women’s game. Coming to the UK and seeing the women’s leagues in Scotland and England has inspired me to explore the idea further and help properly structure things in Nigeria. There’s a huge opportunity for female sport now around the world, especially in Africa.”

Back in Scotland, Edose is due to graduate in July and remains grateful to GCU for helping improve his confidence and ability to make wider society a better place through his Prolific Sports Development initiative.

“I’ve loved it,” said Edose.

“I have really enjoyed my time at GCU and feel like my mind has broadened. The theory has been really rewarding and it’s given me a different perspective. Doing a Masters here taught me that I have the ability to commit to something and finish it. It was that skill that inspired me to organise this tournament and help the children at my school.”

He added: “I’ve got my post-study work visa, so I’m going to be here for at least the next two years. I’m actually thinking of registering my platform as a Scottish charity. I really want to organise something here for Scottish children.

“I’m thinking of either doing an inter-school competition between secondary school kids, or I might do a friendly match to promote Show Racism the Red Card.”

You can follow Edose’s page on Instagram @prolific_sports_development

By Ross Clark           
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