ABH Decides, 2025: An Exclusive Interview with the Sports Minister aspirant, Promise Adeji-Paul
As part of efforts to provide credible reports and reviews on the candidates and the electoral process of the ABH elections, ABH Press reached out to the Sports Minister aspirant, Promise Adeji-Paul. In this exclusive chat with ABH Press correspondents, Promise spoke about his candidacy and share some of his plans.
ABH Press: Can you introduce yourself, please?
Promise Adeji-Paul: My name is Promise Adeji-Paul, and I’m popularly known as PSI. I’m a 400-level medical student at the University of Ibadan. I hail from Edo State. My hobbies are playing football, watching football, and reading, and I’m currently here because of my aspirations for being the sport minister of the Alexander Brown Hall.
ABH Press: Could you please share your reasons for running and explain why you believe you are the most suitable candidate for the role? I know you’re running unopposed; is that why?
Promise Adeji-Paul: I am a person who is very passionate about sports and its transformative power, and I believe I’m the right candidate because of my track record. I’ve been in a lot of sports-related positions, serving on committees where I learned and gathered extensive knowledge. I’ve also headed one or two committees, and I believe I’m the right fit for this position. You wouldn’t have known you were unopposed before the election. Therefore, being unopposed does not justify my candidacy. I didn’t even know I was unopposed until recently. I’ve always been actively involved in most, if not all, of the sporting activities in the hall since I arrived.
ABH Press: Specifically, we are interested in learning more about your role as the sports minister. Can you tell us what you know about it?
Promise Adeji-Paul: I understand that the office of the Sports Minister is one of the executive positions within Alexander Brown Hall, and I believe I should discuss its constitutional duties, which are outlined in section three of article three of the constitution. The sports minister has seven constitutional duties: heading the sports committee, overseeing all sporting activities in the hall, and ensuring maintenance and upgrades of sporting facilities. The sports minister also represents the interests of Alexander Brown Hall at the university level in all matters relating to sports. The sports committee also has a few functions, and they provide for the welfare of any athlete represented in the hall with any competition that Alexander Brown Hall is taking part in. But I think I will leave it at that for now. Those are the responsibilities of the sports minister in Alexander Brown Hall.
ABH Press: So based on that, what are your thoughts on the state of sports right now in ABH?
Promise Adeji-Paul: I would say it’s fine. It’s okay. Moshood Fuhaad, the current sports minister, and his predecessor, Charles Okpara, have done a fantastic job. So far, they’ve done a fantastic job. However, I believe there is room for improvement. That’s why we all try to do better than we found it. One of my campaign’s themes is sports innovation. I believe there are many improvements that could be made to the sporting facilities of the hall. I also believe there is potential to enhance female participation in sports in ABH. This is another key point. Overall, the progress is satisfactory. The sporting activities at the hall have been satisfactory, but there is room for improvement.
ABH Press: All right, thank you. In your opinion, do you think the general participation of Brownites in sports is sufficient? And do we have a well-rounded participation in all the sports available to us in ABH?
Promise Adeji-Paul: Like you said, “my opinion,” and I think it’s fine. We are medical students, and our main purpose here is to learn. We all know how difficult medical school can be, but I also feel it can be better. There are some sports we are lacking. There are some sports that I find just okay. For example, I can confidently say that football is a sport that meets my expectations. At least once a week, we meet to play football, and the turnout is usually quite good. We play what we call a set in football, and each set contains five players, and the least I’ve ever played is three sets.
Promise Adeji-Paul: Occasionally, the number increases to five or more. I consider football and some indoor sports to be acceptable. I believe that basketball participation is lower, but I’ve attempted to gather more information on this topic. My personal opinion is that this could be due to players using a half-court instead of a full court, resulting in a lower turnout than the sport warrants. But for volleyball, it’s okay, and it’s enjoyable even though some of the participants are not Brownites. I think it’s okay because they meet three times a week. I think Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, if I’m correct.
Promise Adeji-Paul: We have a good variety of sports, including football, which boosts cardio. We also have indoor games that involve chess, which can help boost the brain. We also have snooker, table tennis, volleyball, and basketball. Overall, the sports offerings are well-rounded. But one of my plans is to try to add some spots for actual indoor sports, like Scrabble, Ludo, and maybe Checkers. Therefore, I believe the number of sporting games we currently offer is adequate.
ABH Press: A follow-up question you mentioned earlier was about the challenges faced by female participation in sports. This issue is widely recognized. How do you plan to improve it? Do you have any plans to improve female participation in sports?
Promise Adeji-Paul: That’s one of my plans that I will try my best to achieve. I understand the common observation made by all aspirants: typically, they aim to increase female participation in sports. Indeed, these are the three strategies I intend to implement. From what I’ve noticed, I’ve been involved with many female sports. I have served as a member of the coaching staff for both the UIMSA female team and the 2K24 female team. Based on my observations, I have developed three distinct plans. One plan involves a sport day, which is a non-competitive and relaxed environment where participants can try out various sports under the guidance of an instructor.
Promise Adeji-Paul: There’ll be someone there to guide you, and you just try it out. So what that’s going to do is that some female sports will be for everybody. However, I will make every effort to prioritize female participation in these sports, as my observations indicate that a greater number of males already participate in them. I will strive to collaborate with the ministers of women’s affairs to achieve this goal. The sport would be one that is non-competitive and very relaxed.
Promise Adeji-Paul: So when you try it out, it might spark your interest. If you don’t like it, you can move on. There will be many sporting activities that day. There’ll be volleyball, there’ll be basketball, there’ll be football, and there’ll be indoor games like table tennis, snooker, chess, and the like. So throughout the sports day, you just come around and try out the sports day with others, and there’ll be instructors to help you out.
Promise Adeji-Paul: We’ll also try to “bring a friend to sports day.” It’s just more personal when your friend invites you to come around and try out a sport than when the sports minister in court tells you to do so. Therefore, we plan to organize a call to encourage friends to attend Sport Day, a predominantly female-focused event. When you bring your friend, you introduce them to sports. And we’re going to make an effort to add incentives. Anyone who contributes the most, or more specifically, the person who participates in the most sports, will receive something. This is the second strategy we plan to implement. The third strategy we plan to implement is recognition.
Promise Adeji-Paul: Since many women are currently active in sports and many more will be, they deserve recognition. I plan to do this by implementing a selection process for the “Sportswoman of the Month.” We will give them recognition to motivate them to continue what they are doing and encourage others to join. Those are the three strategies I plan to use to increase female participation in sports.
ABH Press: All right, thank you. What’s your opinion of the attitude of past sports ministers toward other sports aside from football?
Promise Adeji-Paul: I can’t really say much when you say “past sports ministers,” which means I won’t lie. I don’t have that info because I’ve only been in the hall for one year, and there was only one sports minister. From what I observed, football is usually the priority, and my opinion is that the other sports, mostly the ones that look like football, are volleyball and basketball. They’re almost independent of the Hall. For example, the volleyball team recently purchased a new ball or two, and the majority of the funding did not come from Brownites. I’ve heard that individuals from the postgraduate hall, as well as consultants, are involved.
Promise Adeji-Paul: It will be so difficult to impose whatever plan you have on them. Imposing doesn’t work because most of the people who play that sport aren’t Brownites. Basketball and volleyball are almost independent of Alexander Brown Hall sports, but the other sports I know aren’t as biased. So that’s my take on that.
ABH Press: How do you plan to improve on the performance of Brownites at external competitions
Promise Adeji-Paul: Okay, thank you very much. From my research, I know that our results in these competitions have been poor, and I believe that this is partly due to our late planning. The only external sporting activity I participated in for this tenure was the inter-house. I observed that the preparation for the entire house began only a few days prior. There was no training session provided. We selected only those who expressed a desire to participate. And by the time you do something like that, you’re definitely going to come out poorly. I plan to make early preparations. So we’ll try as much as possible to be in constant communication with the UISU sports.
Promise Adeji-Paul: We all know that proper planning can prevent poor performance. One way I plan to ensure early preparations is by organizing tasks in advance. And also the team, instead of just looking for people to come out and participate, we can actually go because each sport in Alexander Brown Hall has a captain. Rather than simply contacting individuals to inquire about their participation in the sport, we will instead approach the captains, who are in a better position to introduce themselves. Their advantage is because they have likely played with the team on numerous occasions, thereby providing valuable insights.
ABH Press: So what should Brownites expect if you’re elected? In a short sentence.
Promise Adeji-Paul: Okay. Similar to the motto I’ve always been shouting around, what they should experience is that the sports in Alexander shall take a turn when it comes to innovation. I’m here to promote sports innovation and to bring new ideas and things they haven’t seen before.
ABH Press: What is the first thing you’d love to achieve if you’re elected?
Promise Adeji-Paul: The first thing I would really love to achieve is improving sports facilities. One of the constitutional duties of the sports minister is to ensure that the facilities are maintained and improved. And that’s the main thing I will achieve in the first few months of my tenure. Without proper facilities, it’s impossible to play good sports. If the ball is not a good ball, you can’t really play football or basketball. So, I will first replace broken or poor equipment and buy new ones. So that’s the first or one of the first few things I would like to do.
ABH Press: All right. That’s excellent. Thank you very much. We’ve come to the end of the interview.
Promise Adeji-Paul: Okay. Thank you very much for your time.
