P&G, Hailed for Celebrating Nigerian Children Despite Security Challenges

Oral B Dentist; Dr. Tunde Banjo, P&G Communication Manager, Olatomiwa Akande, ex-Super Eagles goalkeeper and Staruf founder, Prince Peter Rufai with enthusiastic children during the P&G/Staruf 2014 Children's Day Celebration at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos

Former Super Eagles goal tender and founder of STARUF Sports Development Limited (SSD), Peter Rufai has commended leading fast moving consumer packaged goods (FMCG) manufacturer, Procter & Gamble (P&G) Nigeria for celebrating Nigerian children in spite of the security challenges facing the nation in present times. Rufai stated this exclusively in Lagos while taking stock of the company’s support and sponsorship of the various talent hunt and development projects of his foundation, STARUF Sports Development Limited (SSD).

“P&G has been a strong supporter of efforts aimed at discovering, developing and honing the skills of our children. No other company in Nigeria supports children programmes and projects as P&G does. The company demonstrated this recently when they wholly sponsored our Children’s Day sports festival involving about 100 schools and over 1000 pupils and students,” he said.

Popularly known among football fans as Dodo Mayana, Peter Rufai stated that the Children’s Days fiesta sponsored by P&G was a fun-filled sporting fiesta in commemoration of this year’s World Children’s Day celebrations.

It will be recalled that the event held inside the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium complex in Surulere, Lagos and featured the ex-Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai as well as other sporting legends including former captain of Team Nigeria Basketball team and former NBA player, Olumide Oyedeji who were on hand to celebrate and inspire the enthusiastic kids.

The one-day sporting tournament featured sporting events including activities such as 5-aside football competition, sack race, shadow pinning, lime race, egg and spoon racing and more.

Welcoming the children and guests to the event, Peter Rufai, “children are every nation’s most valuable resource;” adding that they are the building bricks of future greatness, endowed with potentials required for the meaningful development of any society.

“This is a vision primarily conceptualised as a platform for children to be celebrated and an avenue for the youngsters to use their natural God given talent for their own development and for the good of the society.”

In her speech, P&G Nigeria Communications Manager, Olatomiwa Akande congratulated the children on their day, adding that the company is pleased to be collaborating with Staruf limited - as a proud sponsor of the event.

“At P&G we recognize that behind every success story is a history of determination, hard work and support. With programs such as this, P&G is contributing in our own small way to Youth sports in Nigeria with the goal of helping the future Nigerian athletes develop their skills and the competitiveness needed to excel on the world stage,” she said while iterating P&G’s commitment to touching and improving lives all around the world.

Ms. Akande added that “Today, we are not focusing on sports alone, but also on the importance of health and wellbeing. For one to be a star athlete, one must first be a healthy, confident athlete”.

On this note, P&G’s Oral B dentist; Dr. Tunde Banjo delivered an instructional talk on dental hygiene even as P&G distributed gift packs of P&G hygiene brands to all the children that participated in the games celebrations.

The collaboration between Procter & Gamble (P&G) Nigeria and STARUF Sports Development Limited (SSD) has continued to bring smiles to faces of Nigerian children. Last year, P&G sponsored STARUF’s youth under 13 and 17 in a football tournament, which had in attendance Nigerian football legends including Mutiu Adepoju, Taju Disu and over a thousand children.