Welcome wows Nigerians

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This article was published 06/06/2015 (4096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Nigerian community in Winnipeg rolled out the red carpet — and the drums, a saxophone, singers, dancers and a nun — to welcome the national women’s soccer team from Nigeria at the airport.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” an awestruck defender Osinachi Ohale said over the celebratory trilling and singing from the expat Nigerian crowd. On the arrivals escalator, her teammates laughed and smiled, pulling out their cellphones and tablets to record the Friendly Manitoba welcome. Dozens of young female soccer players with signs and flags cheered for the team as players such as Ohale autographed their soccer balls.

Members of Winnipeg’s Nigerian community kept playing, singing and dancing.

“I’m here today to give support to our girls and to let them know we’re behind them,” said Sister Eucharia Mgbeadichie, who played soccer growing up in Nigeria.

Today, she belongs to the order of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus and remains a big soccer fan. She’s proud of the Nigerian women’s team — a soccer powerhouse that has dominated women’s football in Africa, winning nine African Women’s Championship titles since the biennial event began in 1991. Now she wants them to win a World Cup.

“I’m going to pray for them,” said Sr. Eucharia holding the Nigerian flag. Like many in Winnipeg’s Nigerian community, she already has tickets for Nigeria’s opening match, she said. “All of us from Winnipeg will be there,” said the nun who has been in Winnipeg just over two years. Too often, the only news Canadians hear about Nigeria is negative — such as reports of Boko Haram and the kidnapping of schoolgirls.

“Many good things happen in Nigeria,” said the sister. “We’re a happy people. We like to socialize with people.”

Dancing and holding two balls he hoped to have autographed, Winnipeg’s Chipalo Simunyola said the lively airport welcome was preparation for the World Cup matches.

“This is what it’s going to be like at the stadium,” predicted Simunyola, part of the Nigerian welcoming committee.

He’s part of a group of 13 that bought tickets together to the Women’s World Cup.

“It’s bigger and more exciting,” he said of the growth of women’s soccer. “They’re breaking through the barriers, and it’s great to see,” said Simunyola.

“We’re taking it all in” he said.

So was the Charleswood U10 soccer team.

It showed up to welcome Nigeria and Australia and held drills next to an empty baggage carousel in between the teams’ arrivals.

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“It’s an adventure,” said assistant coach Mike LePage over the sound of the Nigerian musicians and singers. “It was a field trip day — they could either go to The Forks or this,” he said. They chose to welcome the soccer players. “It’s really neat to see everyone getting behind this.”

Three soccer fans from Atlanta here to see the U.S. women’s team play arrived on the same flight as the Nigerian team and were pleasantly surprised by the welcoming hoopla.

“Wow,” said a wide-eyed Mary Thomas waiting for her bag. She and her sister and a friend plan to sightsee. “Maybe we’ll go to Winnipeg Beach or the human rights museum,” she said.

On Monday, Nigeria plays its first game against Sweden at 3 p.m. at Investors Group Field. It’s followed by the U.S. versus Australia at 6:30 p.m.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.