Rigorous martial arts drills, from sidelines it looks like carrier martial arts training. But actually it’s not, it is self-defense training class that is slowly gathering pace in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
The trainees come from all walks of life, breaking a sweat in order take charge of their personal security.
The trainer Rasheed Olayini used to be a competitive martial artist, won the coveted black belt. But he chose to give all that up to help others learn these lethal skills to defend themselves.
“I’ve had a situation where i have to defend myself against three attackers, it happens in Lagos where I was going and the guys wanted to rob me and it was so fluid that they had to run away so I realized that I could teach people how to defend themselves that’s why basically I withdraw from competitive sport, I stopped fighting competition taekwando, kick boxing and focusing basically on self defence,” said Rasheed Olaniyi – Tae Kwon Do instructor.
Kidnaps for ransom, armed robberies and petty thefts are common threats to personal security in Nigeria, and that is why people are sweating it out in the fee paying martial art classes.
“Considering the environment we are in, a lot mishaps do happen, so with this kind of training, it helps you to protect yourself against those events that may occur, because a lot of kidnapping happen here and there especially in this Abuja, so if you have this knowledge, this kind of training, you can defend yourself,” said Sot Ezekiel Orok, Tae Kwon Do trainee.
“The skills are currently and absolutely necessary for the street as I like to call it, its not important and useless when you learn skills that you can not apply on the field that’s why in my personal opinion I’d rather train people for self defence than train them for competition where they learn tricks and tactics to defend themselves in real life situations and we focus on three things speed, accuracy and strength and all attacks and defence,” said Rasheed Olaniyi – Tae Kwon Do instructor.
With the increasing insecurity level including armed robbery and kidnapping in Nigeria, many in Abuja are beginning to devise means of defending themselves. Aside from the mental and physical health benefit of taekwondo, the self-defense benefit is enormous. That’s why taekwando masters like Rasheed Olaniyi are becoming a busy lot.
