September, 6 2021
The Aisha Buhari Invitational Tournament is a tournament essentially about women as already pointed out. We are about 30 years in women's football which was to be celebrated last year but the Covid 19 pandemic came to be and we decided to bring it this year and it’s a good way to start football again. We also thought of doing more than just football but the power of football is immense, then we heard about the Aisha Buhari Foundation and the work that the foundation is doing, particularly it’s future assured programmes and we decided to marry both facetes of football and the good works of Aisha Buhari Foundation. Hence, the theme for this year's competition: Playing for Good.
Giving the girl child hope that her dreams can come through.
Taking it from different facetes, clearly the falcons have done well in the past 30 years, they have been very successful female team on Earth and Nigeria pioneered women's football in Africa.
In terms of Youth development of the girl child, it’s been a little bit difficult and one of the aim of the Aisha Buhari Invitational Tournament is to encourage parents to enable their talented girl child to play football.
We leveraged on our memberships in FIFA Council, CAF and others as well as the fact that our Falcons are the first in Africa to have the invited countries jump at participating. We didn't choose this teams by mistake because we really wanted strong oppositions to help strengthen our girls anyways.
It is in consideration to have various other women football team from other continents play in the Invitational Tournament against our Falcons but the we have the women's Afcon coming up and we thought to test strengths with prospective competitors. We are not afraid of the European or Asian countries but its step by step. Therefore, the second edition of the Aisha Buhari Invitational Tournament will probably see into European and Asian countries. Also, it is easier to get African countries in this one, given the travel restrictions and protocols.
We hope to make it so successful that by next year, other teams will apply to come and play in the tournament. The competition is peculiar to Nigeria but we had the Governor of Lagos state who was willing to host this edition and have made every possible arrangement for the success already, all thanks to him. Subsequently, it will be hosted across the Country.
More importantly, the Aisha Buhari Foundation and the future assured program is for all children and all women and all girl child.