By Daily Sports on November 27, 2017

The maiden edition of Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence (NASE) which comes up Saturday, December 2, at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, is gathering momentum.

In short, the rank has continued to swell by the day as many notable sports heavy weight administrators, Super Eagles players, Super Falcons, sports persons and friends including sports friendly corporate citizens of repute have identified with the very prestigious Awards.

I may not be totally wrong if I say here that the dice is cast. NASE, easily Nigeria’s biggest sports awards, as an event will further confirm the saying that memories are forever in the minds of many for a long time to come if this massive followership and acceptance are anything to go by. One will be safe to describe it as overwhelmingly different from the rest. The media – traditional and social, are agog for the mother of all sports Awards 2017. Let me confess that my colleagues in the sporting press have been tremendous in running our news releases so far. It is only right to point out here that even Sahara Reporters joined this solidarity march for Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence. It has been long I have witnessed this kind of unionism among us in the media.

Chairman of the organising committee, veteran sports administrator and ex-executive committee member of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Prince Isidore Oduah, in a press statement said that former Ģovernor of Akwa Ibom State and uncommon transformer, Senate Minority Leader, Dr. Godswill Akpabio, and the performing Governor of Borno State, His Excellency, Governor Kashim Shettima, would receive awards for their sterling contributions to the development of sports and its infrastructures. For Governor Shettima and the Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, Senator Akpabio to have accepted to grace the NASE Awards remain no mean feat for the organisers. The composition of the Awards committee remain the back bone and strong point of Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence.

The Awards chairman and other members of the committee have been described as people of impacable character. One will not agree less as their sparkling images have guided NASE to draw these heavy weighs in every sense of the word in its very first outing.

NASE, according to the Awards Chairman, was instituted primarily to fill this yawning gap – to tell these categories of people that their labour and hard work can never be in vain. NASE has also set the tone for young athletes and others to double their efforts knowing fully well that it won’t be in vain at the end of the day as eagle-eyed NASE panelist are keenly watching and monitoring their activities which will surely be reworded.   

That is the lofty and honest mission of this honour bestowed on deserving athletes and other patriots who toiled and brought honour to their father land. The concept of the Award has remained its strength. Its wide acceptance even before its arrival has been overwhelming.  embracing by all and sundry read this to buttress my assertion:

Zenith Sports, Haggai join list of sponsors of Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence

Leading sports equipment firms, Zenith Sports Limited and Haggai Sports, have joined the list of sponsors of the Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence (NASE). The event holds on Saturday, December 2, 2017 at Airport Hotel, Ikeja Lagos.  

The sponsorship deal was finalised on Thursday, November 23, when a high-powered NASE delegation visited the corporate headquarters of Zenith Sports at  92, Ojuelegba Road, Lagos . “We are happy to partner with the Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence in our common goal of taking Nigerian sports to higher heights,” Zenith Sports Managing Director, Mr. Paul Maduakor, said at the occasion. On his part, NASE Administrator, Mr. Isaac Umunna, who led the delegation, expressed appreciation for the sponsorship of the Zenith Sports Group. “We are honoured and humbled to enjoy the confidence of a foremost establishment like the Zenith Sports Group and we look forward to working together with you to take Nigerian sports to the level where it ought to be,” Umunna said.

Zenith Sports are renowned dealers in sport wears, fitness equipment, skateboard, jersey, customised sport wears and shoes. Haggai, a subsidiary of Zenith Sports, boasts the first automated high-speed sportswear factory in Nigeria, a new dimension in indigenous sportswear manufacturing. A brainchild of Nigeria’s pioneer all-sport online daily newspaper,  Daily Sports  ( dailysportsng.com ), NASE is designed to reward Nigerian sportsmen, women and administrators who excel in any given year, as well as corporate bodies contributing significantly to the development and growth of Nigerian sports.

The nominees for this year’s awards include Super Eagles Skipper, Mikel Obi; mesmerising winger Victor Moses; veteran striker Obafemi Martins; safe hands Carl Ikeme and Ikechukwu Ezenwa; goal queen Azizat Oshoala; and tennis sensation Aruna Quadri. Others include Senate Minority Leader, Chief Senator (Dr.) Godswill Obot Akpabio (CON), and incumbent Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shittima.

“Other nominees for the maiden awards, as well as some of the dignitaries expected to grace the award ceremony on December 2 would be unveiled in due course,” according to the Chairman of the Award Committee, Prince Isidore Oduah, a former Executive Committee Member of the Nigeria Football Association, now known as Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

We are told that it will continue to gather momentum till the D-Day when the cat would be let out of the bag. Let discussion continue on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and WhatsAPP. There is no dull moment for Nigerian Awards for Sporting Excellence! Keep sporting and the next time we meet on this page will be rendering an account of how the event went. It will be exciting to tell the story as usual. Keep shooting hard, till next week!

Source Daily Sports

Posted November 27, 2017

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