Nigeria Is My Home —Ojukwu

Head Coach of Kenya’s Port Authority Basketball Club, KPA, Nigerian-born Anthony Ojukwu, said he feels at home playing in the ongoing 17th FIBA-Africa Club Championship for Women, holding inside the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, Southwest, Nigeria.

Ojukwu, told P.M.Sports that he was born in Kaduna 42 years ago to Nigerian parents.

He said his parents took him to Kenya at age of 16 where he schooled and later got involved in basketball.

Ojukwu said since then he has not stepped on the shores of Nigeria until last Friday when he arrived the country for the championship.

Reacting on how he felt lining up his Kenyan girls against a Nigerian side, First Bank, yesterday, Ojukwu said it was a mixed feelings but as a professional, Kenya come first.

He said: “Nigeria is my home and I hope one day I would be in Kaduna where I spent my childhood days.

“I felt really weird to work against my compatriots in our first match but in this job, one just has to be professional,” he said.

Ojukwu said basketball is better off in Nigeria than Kenya.

“Nigerian, Senegalese and Angolan teams are stronger than the Kenyan’s and the rest in Zone 5 that include Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia, South-Sudan and Egypt, who hardly participate in club basketball.

“With the rate of development and financial investment being channelled into basketball and sports in general in the zone, there is no doubt that in a few years we will be able to catch up with rest of Africa,” he said.

— Bamidele Olowosagba