By Uche Onyeali
Number one female golf professional in Nigeria, Mrs. Uloma Mbuko Ogbuokiri, has debunked the allegation that she spearheaded a suit against the Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria, PGAN.
Mrs. Ogbuokiri, in a statement titled ‘Enough of All These Lies and Misinformation About My Person,’ which she made available to Newsmen on Monday, noted that the reaction became necessary to make the public know the truth about what transpired between her and the suit against PGAN.
Madam Ogbuokiri informed that contrary to the misinformation being fed to the public, she never took PGAN to court as an individual; rather, it was the Ladies Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria, LPGAN, that sued PGAN for attempting to claim that ladies professional golfers association of Nigeria had no right to exist, thereby infringing on the fundamental rights of its members.
According to her, the statement was meant “to state in clear terms and truthfully about what happened between me and the PGAN over these years from 2005 to date, and to inform those who take delight in misinforming the public about my person that they should desist from such misinformation, otherwise I will not hesitate to seek legal redress. I have been painted black and maligned for too long, and this must stop.
“In 2005, after conquering and winning almost all the major tournaments in Nigeria, as the number one female golfer in Nigeria, I decided to further my golf career and go professional. I approached PGAN through Mr. Tony Uduimuh, the then director of PGAN in Benin. I was told that PGAN had no female section and no provision for women; therefore, no programme. He advised me to go overseas (Ladies European Tour) or any other tour overseas.
“In 2007, Miss Valentina Manteaw Ogieva and I, along with other ladies, made the necessary effort to be trained under the PGAN platform, but we were unsuccessful because women’s inclusion in PGAN was not yet a reality.
“My journey to become a professional took me to PGA UK in 2007, where I realised that the PGA of Nigeria has no global recognition. Because of that, I had to complete my PGA Residential and Playing Ability Test in the UK.
“With the help of PGA UK, I applied to PGA South Africa in 2009 and was first accepted into a Gap programme. In 2010, I began the full three-year programme. After graduating, I earned an A Class certification as a golf professional in 2013.
“When I returned to Nigeria as the first female golf professional in the country, I applied for membership with PGAN. The PGAN committee at that time did not believe in my qualifications. To them, a Nigerian could not possess an ‘A‘ class golf qualification, let alone be certified. I was then told I needed to complete another six months of apprenticeship with a PGAN pro before I could be accepted.
“The drama started when they received evidence of my higher qualification. First, it was ‘where will she be teeing up from?’ Then, ‘she has to come to Lagos for an interview.’
“All executive members must attend the interview. ‘No, she has to come to Otukpo for the interview. ‘No, her interview cannot be during a tournament. She needed to go to the PGAN secretariat. No, she cannot be interviewed alone,” etc.
“After a series of delays, it was obvious that they were not comfortable with my application.
“As a result, I decided to search for the possible reason for the drama and prepare for their interview. I then stumbled upon the PGAN constitution and bylaws guiding the association. To my dismay, I found the following clauses, which are inimical to my career and are capable of stagnating my growth: ‘A PGAN member must have been 10 years with the association to train prospective /aspiring pros.’ I considered this unacceptable even when I have a global and superior certification.”
“And I was made to tee off from the same Tee Boxes with men in tournaments, which is not the global practice. Female professionals usually have their Tee Boxes.
“Low standard of Golf Education for members and prospective members, which is far below the global practice, which I mentioned to them, and some of them took offence.
“After a long delay, when what they called an interview finally took place, it was so insignificant, a one-man show, that I forgot that I had a PGAN interview.
If all the PGAN beliefs and practices are at variance with the PGA World Alliance objectives and practices, it then implies that a PGAN pro does not have a future in the global arena. And that is what is happening to its members today.
“The Ladies Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria, LPGAN, was established to address the neglect of female golfers pursuing professional careers in the Nigerian golf industry, which has been around for 50 years.
Before the founding of the LPGAN, Nigerian female golfers seeking to turn professional had to find competitive opportunities abroad because there was no such female organization in Nigeria at the time.
“It is on record that the Nigerian PGA had no female section or members until 2021. After 50 years of existence in Nigeria, they resolved to use coercion, intimidation, and threats to force LPGAN members to join the association, stating that LPGAN is not recognised in Nigeria. Blackmail letters were written to our various clubs and global associations by PGAN against us, demanding that we be stopped and dispossessed from our clubs.
“PGAN severely told us, LPGAN members, that we are not recognised in Nigeria since we are not PGAN members; therefore, we would not be allowed to participate or represent Nigeria in tournaments in Nigeria or outside Nigeria.
“It is important to note that I have been representing my country long before the establishment of the PGAN women’s wing. PGAN stopping me or any other female professional from participating in an international tournament is not acceptable.”
Following these experiences, Mrs. Ogbuikiri asserted that the female professional golfers had no choice but to officially report the alleged ill treatments to LPGAN, after which the association also made several peaceful efforts to resolve the differences with PGAN, but to no avail. Rather, the said ill treatment intensified.
“PGAN, as an association, demanded that LPGAN (another association) be dissolved and come under PGAN as a ‘section.’
“Several letters were written to both PGAN and NGF stating our association’s willingness to collaborate and partner with any other association or federation for the development of golf in Nigeria, and that, as an existing entity registered under Nigerian law in 2015, LPGAN cannot be subsumed under another entity (PGAN).”
“In 2022, during the Nigeria Golf Federation, NGF, Golf Summit, I was invited by the president of NGF, Otunba Olusegun Rensewe, to the summit. I was not told that the president was going to make an announcement over my non-membership in PGAN. Embarrassingly, he ambushed me by announcing that I had agreed to join PGAN and that the issue had been settled, to my disappointment.
“I expressed my displeasure over what he did because I was expecting him to find a workable solution to the issue, rather than taking sides to brand me as a troublemaker.
“It is instructive to note that almost all the ladies who joined the PGAN in 2021 were trained in 2017 and became professionals in 2018 through LPGAN, and all were certified by LPGAN before PGAN convinced them to join the association. The records are available and verifiable.
“It is the PGAN that forced our members to join the association, where obviously, there is no programme for the ladies. It was also PGAN that started to prevent prospective members from joining LPGAN, misleading them and the public that our association (LPGAN) does not exist.
“As all the peaceful efforts made did not yield favorable results, LPGAN had to take the issue to court to determine if LPGAN has no right of existence and no right to organise her events, including tournaments in Nigeria,” and “if her members have no freedom of association, as alleged by PGAN.
Other clarifications sought by the association, according to Mrs. Ogbuokiri, include “if PGAN has the right to forcefully stop LPGAN members from participating in tournaments in Nigeria and outside Nigeria; if PGAN has the right to stop LPGAN members from carrying out their lawful services in their various clubs; and if PGAN has the right to coerce LPGAN members into joining PGAN.”
She noted that it is a global practice for women to have their associations and collaborate with those of men when necessary, citing the example of women in other countries where golf is played and practiced, with women having their separate associations.
Ogbuokiri mentioned entities such as LPGA America, Women’s PGA South Africa, LPGA Asia, LPGA Australia, Ladies European Tour, among others, noting that the purpose of establishing LPGAN was to give Nigerian ladies a professional platform that was not in existence then, and the opportunity to be part of the global village in the golf profession.
“No one at any time intended to mislead anybody with the registration of LPGAN, which was duly done according to the relevant laws in Nigeria and with the approval of the Ministry of Sports and the Nigeria Golf Federation, NGF, in 2014 and 2015, respectively. LPGAN existed years before the establishment of the PGAN ‘Women Section’ in 2021.
“It is important to re-emphasise here that LPGAN’s objective is to develop the game of Golf in Nigeria and give our female professionals the platform to access international training and exposure, which will, in turn, enable them to compete favorably with other female professionals across the world.
“The truth remains that the PGAN is not disposed to updating its members’ knowledge and skills to meet global standards and practices; hence, they vehemently object to having another association.
“LPGAN is not in any way a duplication or impersonation of PGAN because the global practice is for women to run their affairs alongside men.
“Let it be on record that I have not stopped anybody from joining PGAN, nor have I done anything that suggests running PGAN down. PGAN officials and their members are the ones who have severely and consistently maligned my personality and insulted me at different fora of their gatherings. They also sent their lady captain to assault me in Côte d’Ivoire.
“Uloma is not your enemy, as portrayed by your secretariat and executive committee. Rather, I have contributed immensely to the development of PGAN as an association.
“In 2010, I was the ‘informant’ that had no name according to your Exco, who assisted in bringing the Sunshine Tour and PGAN Tour together. It did not work out because your then Exco preferred to kill it.
“In 2015, I persuaded PGA SA to bring PGA World Alliance Level 1 Coaching that would have given PGAN, PGAs of Europe, accreditation and recognition. They trashed it. According to your then Exco, it was too expensive for a programme that would normally cost N5million, but was offered to PGAN members only N1million each for 15 pros.
“I initiated through the LPGAN platform the R&A Scholarship for training, which was made for LPGAN members, that PGAN hijacked in 2020 to establish PGAN women’s wing. This was also truncated.
“In 2019, I also convinced the PGA of South Africa of the two-week training organised by Otunba Olusegun Rensewe, president of the Nigeria Golf Federation, NGF, that brought Mr. K Mpoh, a PGA SA member and golf professional from Botswana, to Nigeria. About 15 PGAN pros benefited from that training. And, many more that I would not mention here. All the files and information concerning the above are properly documented,” Ogbuokiri revealed.
She claimed that her crime was that she does not believe that the Nigerian golf industry should remain local, leading to her passion for working with individuals, associations, and corporations to develop the industry in the country.
