This past weekend December 11th and 12th 2021, Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN who was represented by the State Deputy Governor, Hon Lucky Aiyedatiwa led other high profile dignitaries for the Opening Ceremony and official launch of the Tola Awosika Football Cup (TAFC) which was held at the Akure township Stadium.
The two days event also witnessed the annual Awosika Christmas party that hosted over 15,000 youths with monetary donations of 1million in cash to over 200 families, and a free concert headlined by Davido and LAX; as well as the launch of a healthcare app called ‘Mothers Pride’; a free health service for all pregnant women in Ondo State.
Speaking on the reason for the Football tournament, the visioner Dr. Tola Awosika said, ‘Ondo State has a very high percentage of youthful population and our current football club in the state ‘Sunshine Stars‘ have over time proven that there’s a lot of talent in soccer if properly harnessed and nurtured. So for us, it was an opportunity to give the young ones
who aren’t necessarily on that level the chance and opportunity to grow and as we all know, sport is also a unifying factor in our country today’.
Dr. Tola Awosika went on to explain that, ‘what we intend to achieve with this is to promote talents in the areas of football and music which is why we combined the football event with a mini concert with Davido as the headline act because as we all know, music and sport are huge industries in the country and we intend to use this exposure to propel some of the talents we have discovered to greater heights and help them build a career. This is the reason why both teams who played in the cup finals went home with cash prizes of 1million naira for the winning team and 500,000 naira for the runner up.
Apart from his interest in sport and entertainment, Dr Tola Awosika is also passionate about healthcare and to ensure women in Ondo State get the best of healthcare, he launched the ‘Mother’s Pride’ app. In his words, ‘we launched it on Saturday the 11th December at the annual Christmas party for kids. We did a pilot with 200 women on the day and to ensure this service is indeed accessible to everyone, we are going into partnership with internet providers to give free hotspot internet across the state for women to use the app to check their progress while pregnant and post pregnancy’.
Other distinguished personalities who attended the event include, former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, representative of Ooni of Ife, Oba Michael Adebayo, Deji of Akure and Chairman State Council of Obas, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aadelusi, Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom Oba Adesimbo Victor Kiladejo Adenrele Ademefun Kiladejo
Jilo III, The Convener, Dr. Tola Awosika, representative of Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Amb Mary Onyali, Mother of the Convener, and also Chairman of Access Bank Dr Mrs Ajoritsedere Awosika MFR, mni, Father of the Convener, Dr Olubayode Awosika.
Equally present at the well attended event are, National Coordinator of Pentagon Movement Group,(PMG), Engr Babajide Akeredolu, popular Musician, Adeleke David (Davido), singer LAX, Nigerian Football legends, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha and John Shittu.
