*GSS Karu wins 9tg edition finals in both boys, girls categories
By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
Power Forward, an initiative of the National Basketball Association (NBA), ExxonMobil and PanAfricare has impacted over 200,000 students and 40 schools in Abuja positively since the inception of the programme in 2013 according to the organisers.
The Power Forward initiative over the years have continued to instill health literacy, motivation and self-dignity including life skills through basketball on secondary school students drawn from many participating government and private secondary schools in Abuja.
At the finals of the ninth edition of the Power Forward held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja where Government Secondary School Karu emerged as the winners of the basketball competition in both the boys and girls categories, organisers say it is an overall mission to amplify young talents and grow the next generation of Nigerian leaders.
Speaking at the two-day event in Abuja, NBA Africa Vice President and Country Head of Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, described Power Forward as “an incredible programme focused on young school children in Abuja for them to acquire life skills through the lens of basketball. The goal is to roll out an expanded programme like this to other parts of Nigeria because when it comes to talent development, it starts from a very young age.”
In his remarks, the Power Forward ambassador, former professional American basketball player who is part of the 1995 All-Star and the 1992 Slam Dunk Champion, Cedric Ceballos admonished parents to encourage and allow their wards to play professional basketball.
Also speaking during the events, PanAfricare Country Director for Nigeria, Dr Patrick Adah said, “the expectations of the Power Forward partnering group was that some of the students will not only metamorphose into being professional basketball players for Nigeria but will grow up into many respective leadership positions in the country particularly in the health sector.”
According to Adedoyin Adelabu, ExxonMobil Business and Government Relations Manager, the Power Forward project is one of several initiatives supported by ExxonMobil globally as part of its corporate social responsibility.
“Since the year 2000, as part of these various ExxonMobil supported programmes including Power Forward, we have distributed over 15 million bed nets, 4.2 million rapid diagnostic kits and 5.6 million doses of anti-malaria treatments with nearly 900,000 health workers trained reaching more than 175 million people worldwide,” Adedoyin explained.
The ninth edition of the Power Forward finals was enliven with breathtaking entertainment from Crayon, one of Nigeria’s rave musician as well as the Air Elite Dunk Team, world famous basketball slam dunk performance team from the United States of America.
