Women From Nigeria

"My talent was first discovered at a school athletics day a year after I arrived Norway. We had different events such as sprint, long jump and high jump. I was the fastest girl, and the guys were afraid to run against me, so, I ended up running by myself, but with the best times of all children. The teachers encouraged me after that to take up athletics."

"It would have been a great honour to represent Nigeria at some point, but the IAAF has made it very hard to switch allegiance. Now, the athlete has to wait at least two years to compete for another country in an international championships."

"There’s a lot of stigmas and stereotypes that we navigate on the daily, to the point where I try my best to really tune them all out. But everyone thinks that we don’t make any money at all, people don’t know that we play 12 months out of the season, and that watching women’s basketball is not exciting. Those are all fallacies and… I think are quickly becoming dispelled."

"We have the want to, we have the determination and the belief but we need to turn all of that into real confidence and just having a little bit of swagger. I think that’s what we saw (Tuesday night) and we want to definitely build off of how we feel. For me, I play for intangibles so you can run as many plays as you want to, you can throw all these different schemes out but it’s not going to matter if you’re not locked in with the people that are out there."

"Make the best out of my training, to improve everyday, and reach the potential that I feel inside me and haven’t shown yet. If I manage to do all that, the result will surely come."

"I’m not the same caliber as Nneka so I feel funny saying this but I’m really proud of her. It takes a lot to do that and she is consistent, especially this year 92023). Her numbers are off the charts and it’s almost casual. She’ll have 15 at halftime and that’s consistent. It’s kind of not talked about enough and it’s just a thing that she does, but it is excellence and I’m proud of her. I’m not surprised though because that’s the human she is."

"I want to leave this place better than how I entered it. Period, point-blank. I want the job — the fervor, the passion of having agency over your value, your worth, your change — to be in players that are recognizing that as they enter the league."

"When we (Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike) started playing basketball, we didn't quite know what it would offer. It was a whole world that we were just completely unfamiliar with."

"That’s what it feels like and I’m really grateful. I think I’m also thinking about myself, what I want and what I want to achieve. I think I’ve kind of hung my career very heavily on service but I’m focusing more of that service as, like, how can I serve my wants, my needs, my goals that create a greater environment and perspective for my team and my teammates."

"There's a through line in all of us (she and her siblings), but we all kind of ended up doing our own thing, and I love it. Supporting that is really important because our parents raised us to be collaborative and be teammates instead of competitive. So we've never been a, 'Oh, Chiney did that? Oh, I'm going to do this!' We've always just been like, 'Girl, can I come along!' We just love celebrating each other and I think it's also what contributes to how we achieve what we achieve."

"I didn’t anticipate it, to be honest. I ended up doing more than I thought I was going to do this season. It’s still a blessing and I’m very grateful to know that I’m capable. To be able to come out, both on the All-Defensive and WNBA teams, it showed that I’m doing something right. I want to make sure that I’m as much of an asset on the court for my teammates."

"With the pandemic and wars going on, it's really making it difficult for players to decide between life and dream. It's sad that the choice is so dangerous. It's not that it wasn't before. I guess it's that with the rise of women's sports, with the investment in women's sports, you just want to see something to where that doesn't feel like it's a necessity and I think right now, it still feels like a bit of a necessity for players."

"We believe that every girl in society, regardless of her ethnic background, should get equal chance in sports to have fun, develop her talents and enjoy being in an inclusive community. We believe that youth sports is the best tool for girls to develop self-motivation, resiliency and strong appreciation for their own health and well- being. To help young girls become the future ethical leaders and positive contributors for our society, we offer training and equipment for them free of charge twice a week."

"I would say that I learned something new, maybe not necessarily about my skill but more about how I exert my skill – my stamina, my endurance. I learned a lot about that. That’s after a lot of great offseason work, and now to build off of that. Each offseason, I’m like, ‘OK, I did this much. What’s it going to look like?’ It’s amazing to see that there are still more changes to be made after each season. I’m in that right now and it feels really good."

"Parents that are ashamed of their wards must understand that they are just children, just humans, it doesn’t mean that you should not care for them."

"I think the only legacy is somebody who served in truth and justice— that’s what I titled my memoir. You must have confidence that this is the truth as you see it, as you know it, no matter who it offends, you do your best according to the law of the land."

"Every child comes into this world for a purpose; they should not wallow in self-pity, and should not hold out against people that stigmatised them because they don’t know any better."

"But many of us, because of money and status, they’ve lost it. So we are reducing the efficacy and importance of the profession to the ordinary man, so everything you do now, the ordinary man can do it because you’re not doing the right thing."

"When you hear ’12 years in’ and ‘you’ve been doing this for so long,’ and ‘40 games,’ your mind automatically goes to ‘OK, how can I achieve this the best way possible without getting hurt?"

"Meeting South Africa in the final is what we have been praying for because we want to play them again ."

"I’m really just very grateful, to be honest. I guess it kind of gives me a new lease on what the end of my career really looks like."

"We can’t just have one huge monolith of the national grid. It doesn’t work; it hasn’t worked."

"Women have very strong pain thresholds because they are born mothers. Women endure a lot and while some show it, some don’t. Moremi is proof to everyone and not just women that if you love something, you would fight for it no matter the cost. Women fight for their families aggressively on the daily and this is the message of Moremi. Moremi is strong and she changed destiny and history by saving her people and this is what women can do."

"I will protect Queen Móremí’s 12th Century iconic legacy as a contemporary torch bearer of Yorùbá culture and heritage globally."

"The responsibilty of government at all levels ,is ensuring the protection and welfare of its people."

"What Gets Me by is Courage"

"Times are changing and women are beginning to realise that we need to grow stronger. We need to show strong character in changing the society. I urge them to emulate the great heroine and be saviours to others."

"The indelible and heroic legacies of Queen Moremi will continue to endure in the chronicles of both Yorùbá and world histories."

"Complexities in the society in which we live keep increasing, there is need to shift the status quo and review the legal framework."

"Sometimes in interviews I get asked a lot of questions about the whole MCU, and I'm not there yet. And I don't have all the answers. But I don't actually feel that outside of the press junket... You know, everyone's just full of love. All the fans are full of love. And then I don't have the pressure of playing a character that already existed. They get what they're given, and I don't have to live up to anything, other than the show and my character. Me – and what I want for the character. But, yeah, I feel like everyone has been really cool. I haven't felt this frenzy. I've never been to a Comic-Con, though, so I don't know what that's like."

"God Almighty has given me the grace of achieving one of my greatest ambitions within my first year on this sacred throne of Oduduwa. Moremi Ajasoro, an Ife queen who in her lifetime exhibited an unrivaled heroism of world’s liberty dedicated her life to the liberation of mankind by sacrificing her only child to free the people of Oodua land from the invasion of some faceless terrorists thousands of years ago."

"No one is above the law and that government decisions must be made only by applying known legal and moral principles."

"She (Moremi) was a heroine, who liberated the people of Oodua land from faceless invaders who sought to enslave them"

"The doctrine of the Rule of Law limits the powers of government and helps to prevent dictatorship as well as to protect the rights of the people."

"If we don’t want this democracy, it is better we forget about it."

"Moremi is an important figure and a great warrior worthy of emulation. With the pageant, we are trying to globalise and make the world know about a very important person."

"It’s very different living here now and being Black in America, being married to an African American, knowing that my future is here and therefore, my safety is in the hands of the people in charge. It’s very sobering and scary. It does feel different, being in a country where police officers have guns. That’s not a thing in the UK."

"[It’s] extraordinary… that the word ‘police’ doesn’t evoke the feeling of safety in you. That’s so profound; I feel like so many people just ignore that. They just don’t relate to that. And I have to acknowledge that I have a privilege – in the UK, as a woman, I’ve never really encountered the police, whereas all of my Black male friends have. And then in the US, when we get stopped by the police, the way they interact with my husband? Very, very intimidating. Very, very scary for me. We’ve made a little thing, where I make sure I say something… in a very, very English accent, and the crazy thing is, the next thing that generally comes out of their mouth is like, ‘Oh, hey, where are you from?’ The interaction completely changes because my accent now makes them interact with my humanity. I don’t know what it is, but all of a sudden, they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s British.'"

"If I had to put it down to one thing that would make a woman successful, it would be to keep learning and keep applying what you have learnt. And once we keep learning and keep applying what we have learnt, we keep stepping up one more step."

"It is for yourself to act now. Bring out yourself and let people know your worth."

"It feels so necessary to tell this story right now. There’s a rot in the system that a lot of people are shouting about, but a lot of people are deaf to."

"Whether or not you feel safe, if the police, and policing, and the justice system and the society is corrupt, we’re not safe. If there is that kind of pain being inflicted by the people that you deem safe, you’re not safe. This needs [to be] addressed and fixed and cut out, and replaced and reimagined, so that there is actually room for hope. ‘Cause we’re all here, sharing it, and some people get the luxury of feeling hopeful. And some people just… don’t."

"A lot of us have grown up with cultures where strong women have worked very hard but they have not necessarily tried to rise because they have felt that leadership is the province of men… So I believe that our biggest challenge as women is to be able to step forward and to actually lead."

"I don't cherry pick my life"

"When Shoplifters (2018) came out, my husband and my auntie kept telling me, "You've got to watch this film," and I kept putting it off. I'm quite bad in the cinema, honestly. Generally, if you put me in a dark room, I'll want to go to sleep. I'm dyslexic as well, so reading the subtitles in foreign films can be really hard for me. But watching Shoplifters was, for me, like the first time I actually read a novel. I usually just read plays or short stories, but when I read a novel for the first time, I felt like I finally got to experience the full breadth of a story. Shoplifters was the first time a foreign film really opened me up like that. Reading the subtitles wasn't a chore, and my heart really broke open. I wasn't expecting that. I thought the subtitles would create a separation between the film and I, but they didn't. It’s a perfect film. The acting in it is really human and really honest, too. There's no frills in those performances. It's just, this is who we are, how we feel, what we’re doing, and how we're living."

"It was just really nice coming back. It's very rare for me to come back to a show. I think I've only ever come back to Vera, and I only came back for one episode. To come back to season 2 to see everybody and be like, 'Oh, we did this' – that was really fun. That was just really new. I think I felt a little bit more... I think I felt a little bit more nervous. I hope we live up to season 1, because... that obviously went down well, because we're here at season 2."

"Midwives are absolutely crucial to achieving substantial improvements in maternal health. Midwives empower mothers to make life-saving choices for their children before, during, and after childbirth. A skilled midwife can provide expert care that ensures the survival of newborns during the first fragile 24 hours of life, and enables them to not only survive, but also thrive well into childhood. Midwives empower women at a time when their health is at its most vulnerable. Midwives empower women in a way that can help shape the future health of both mother and baby. After all, we know that an empowered woman is a health-seeking woman for herself, her family and her community."

"Bring out the women. They have the ability and the strength. They are able to excel."

"It was quite emotional to be hearing the stories from passersby telling us what it felt like, and what hasn’t changed, and what needs to change."

"I really love working with new directors. I've been reading a lot of stuff from new writers, and it's really exciting. But so is working with someone as brilliant and exciting as Sigourney. It's great to sit in both of those worlds."