On this edition of PlayitDreamitTuesday, 12 January, 2021. We have with us Tega Onojaife, Founder of Ladies in Sport Conference, Sports producer and presenter at Smooth 98.1 FM Radio and we will be discussing, “the media and women sports”.

While going through your bio, I observed the switch in your career. What inspired you to take up a career in sports? I must commend that I found that really impressive.

I became bored in my previous job so I decided to do something that I absolutely loved and could never be tired of. It had to be something that in spite of frustration, I ‘d still want to do it and that is sports.

Wow! that’s really amazing. In a society where loving sport has been stereotyped to male gender.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.

Q1: What is your take on sport for development?

It’s really a misconception that sport IS for one gender. Every single person is connected to sports one way or another. Even those that do not actively play a sport or watch sports events.

So sports for development is really using sports to bring about access to quality education, creating jobs, opening Countries to tourism and cultural exchange, building businesses etc. and all these helps in developing communities.

Like I said in my previous post. Everyone is connected to sports. Sports is not restricted to athletes or fans. It is a business. It is a career. It also bolsters economies when done right. It is access to education. It is globalization.

Very insightful! Sport is a way of life. It is entwined with our culture and daily living

Q2: You have been in the field of sports for over a decade. What challenges have you observed that women face in sports?

The first is the mindset that sport is for men. A woman can’t understand it. She can’t perform as well.  Second is the networking it requires to build a successful career. Women are a little more reserved and do no build business networks as we should

Very true Change first starts in the mind. Renewing our mindsets will do us a lot of good

Q3: I would love it if you could share with us, the reason(s) why women’s sport is not as popular and invested in as men’s sports?

I think the first thing would be going back to challenges; the mindset. The next would be that the popular sports have a lot of people with this misconception that women’s sport isn’t interesting. Tennis & athletics don’t struggle as much.

Q4: As a sport expert in the media, what is the role of the media in promoting women’s sports?

Media plays a crucial role. Women’s sport needs more coverage than they get. They get just 4% of news coverage in sports stories. Also, how we share information about women’s sport shapes the idea of women’s sport.

Q5: So what is the way forward for boosting women’s sports in Nigeria and Africa?

Policy creation around intentionally promoting women’s sport It announces to organizations and investors that women’s sport is important. Media coverage has to increase. Sports federations need to restructure to deliberately grow women’s sport

These are indeed powerful points that needs to be worked on, if we want the women’s sport industry to grow

Q6: Can you please share with our audience how your organization @LISinternationl is supporting women in sports?

We organize training and workshops for women in sports. We have events for networking and promoting women’s sport. We run social media campaigns to increase the popularity of women in sports.

Well-done to you and your team @LISinternationl.

Kudos for the great job you are doing. We need all hands on deck in promoting women’s sports.

Q7: Finally, what’s your message to female sports stakeholders and football players?

Don’t lose faith. Keep pushing.

Straight to the point yet very powerful!

Thank you so much, It was a pleasure having you on board.

Until next week on another edition of #PlayitDreamitTuesday , keep talking #Sport4Dev, #EqualityForAll and #Womeninsports.