Adaeze Asigbe is a taekwondo 2nd degree black belt holder and a graduate of Project Management Technology from the University of Lagos. She is married to Asigbe Samuel who is also her personal coach and they are blessed with a nine year old daughter. She hails from Onelga local government area in Rivers state.
Experience getting a black belt
It really wasn’t an easy journey. It took five years of hard work, dedication and determination to get a 1st Dan (first degree black belt) certification and another eight years to get a 2nd Dan Kukkiwon (i.e the internationally accepted Taekwondo certifying body in South Korea). Getting a black belt requires mastering a lot of skills, techniques and movements in the previous belt levels which includes: white belt (which is the beginners level) , junior yellow belt, senior yellow, junior blue, senior blue, junior brown, senior brown, junior red and senior red respectively. Each of these various levels have different sets of skills and movements which you need to master in order to pass your practical exams before you can be graded to the next level. This also comes along with very rigorous trainings, dedication and commitment of course sacrifices as well.
Privileges of being a black belt holder
Well, personally, I don’t think there are special privileges accrued to being a black belter because it is what you can do as a black belter that determines what you can get out of being one. Just being a black belter alone does not sell you but being an active black belter whose performance makes statements nationally and even internationally will pave way for certain opportunities.
Winning the Commonwealth Taekwondo championships held in Edinburg Scotland in 2014
I must say that this has so far been my highest achievement. I had a silver medal in the under 29 female team Poomsae category and a bronze medal in the under 29 individual freestyle Poomsae category respectively. We had the wonderful privilege of representing this great nation Nigeria. It was intense and involved hard work and dedication put in by both my coach and I. While preparing for the 18th National Sports Festival held in Lagos in 2012, I represented Bauchi State and barged a Gold medal in the -49kg female Kyoruigi (fight) category and Silver in the female individual Poomsae category amongst other gold, silver and bronze medals I had won prior to the sports festival. These winnings made my selection into the national camp possible and that was how I finally got selected into the national team.
What pledges were made?
The then Director General of sports to the Federation told us when we paid him a visit at his hotel in Scotland that every gold medallist would get 2 million naira, silver 1.5million and bronze, 1million Naira respectively.
Have the pledges been fulfilled?
To our greatest surprise, none has been fulfilled till this very moment as we speak. We were told that the then president Goodluck Jonathan would host us upon landing in Nigeria but none of what they mentioned ever happened. It’s been three whole years now and nothing has been done about it. It just seems like the government so easily forgot these young men and women who brought glory to the country as this was the best Taekwondo international competition result since 1987. In 1987 all Africa Games, Nigeria barged 3gold, 1silver and 1bronze but at the Commonwealth games we had 4 Gold medals, 2 silver and 4bronze making it a total of 10 medals with 12 athletes.
Advice to the Federal Government
I want to urge the federal government to please pay more pay more attention to sports as a whole especially the ones where you have Nigerians participating in. They should encourage the youths of this great nation involved in sports in order to keep their dreams alive. They should please sponsor international competitions because these international competitions will give them international ranking points and the more international competitions an athlete attends, the more points he/she earns and the more exposure they get. Most of them are either undergraduates struggling to balance active competition and hustling with their studies or unemployed graduates who have dedicated their time to doing what they love and have passion for. The government should create scholarship schemes for sports undergraduates and sports job for graduates and non-graduates who have in one way or the other brought glory to the nation. Today we hear of females in sports flying the flag high for Nigeria and same for men too. It is only fair to reward this group of people who are giving the nation a good name globally. When promises are made, integrity demands that you live up to your promise.
Women and martial art skills
AA Lady needs to have the knowledge of martial arts to help reduce the feeling of inadequacy, low self-esteem and boost self-confidence while developing mental fortitude and resilience. Being able to defend oneself in the face of confrontation is definitely a great skill to have mostly for women as they are always victims of sexual violation and molestation. Self-defence for them adds to a feeling of empowerment and will also reduce the negative effect of fear. It also develops discipline in them, increase cardiovascular and motor skills and can also help reduce stress.
Kemi Ajumobi
