Gen Bindawa: Youth golf is my life
JS Bindawa, the imposing no-nonsense retired Army General took off with polo as a recreational game. At that point, he was viewing golfers as old, lazy lots who craved for time to waste. All of a sudden, he was posted to Islamabad as a Defence Attache in Nigeria’s Embassy in Pakistan. There he met a soul mate, Brigadier Mansuri, from Bangladeshi. Mansuri was all about golf and he dragged Bindawa in. In no time, Bindawa got addicted… yes, in golf not polo.
As it is in golf, an addict must hit the bottom before he starts to climb. This was the case with the amiable General when he left Islamabad for a new post of General Commanding Officer in Bauchi. Naturally, he resumed playing golf in Bauchi. But the Bauchi course wasn’t exactly like the lush places you see at the IBB Club or the Smokin Hills in Ilara Mokin. The truth is the Bauchi course was like a place the atomic bomb dropped at Hiroshima.
Then another wonder of the earth. A friend of Bindawa, Jubril Aliu was always at the Bauchi course to see youths who were coming from the neighbouring village to the course, as caddies, playing fluid golf on such a harsh terrain on ground at the Bauchi course.
Aliu informed Bindawa about the untapped talents who could play golf around rocky areas. Bindawa got moved and he assembled ten of those youths. He offered huge resources and moved them to training. Not in Nigeria but abroad. But the story is just unfolding.
Hear Bindawa: “I came into golf through polo but I adapted perfectly because both gams have to do with swinging. I must tell you golf is difficult since it has to do with a state of mind. But when a friend told me youths could play this game with less difficulty, even on a rough terrain in Bauchi, I got interested. I moved the kids into training and I became poised to train them. I must say the Bauchi Governor, Barrister Muhammed Abubakar did everything to support me. I took those kids I groomed into an international youth game in Sousse, Tunisia, and they excelled. Since that period, I told myself I will give my all to youth golf. For instance, my five year old son, Muhammed Sanni, is playing and I am pushing him harder to play more”.
All the same, General Bindawa has a misgiving about the Board of the Nigeria Golf Federation he served a couple of years ago. Bindawa who turned around the Minna Golf Club as Captain confessed that the NGF he served was close to a house of horror.
“I came to serve as the President of NGF”, Bindawa said. “But all of a sudden, someone who was close to then Senate President, David Mark, the person of Dr. Deshi came forth. We all agreed to support Deshi so he could turn golf around through his closeness to David Mark, a true man of golf. But Deshi shocked us all. He blocked us from Senator Mark and yet he did nothing. That period in the NGF became wasted. I could say I almost regret that period, but for one thing. That period brought me close to real people who are working for the game of golf in Nigeria”.