While we’re complaining about physical abuse in Nigeria and its negative effects, UK-based boxer, Anthony Joshua, has come out to say that the beating he received as a boy in a Nigerian boarding school helped instill discipline and toughness in him.
(Source: GIPHY)
Joshua shared this ‘testimony’ with Daily Mail in anticipation of his upcoming Wembley fight with Russian, Wladimir Klitschko. He revealed that his mother had taken him to Nigeria at the age of 11 where she enrolled him in a boarding school. Joshua was in the school for six months, enduring the physical abuse that some so-called teachers put students through in the name of discipline. Speaking about the experience, he said:
“We got beaten. That’s my culture – beating. The government raises your kids now. Parents aren’t allowed to raise their kids because there is so much control about what you do or what you say.
In the (Nigerian) culture it’s family and outside support – everyone has a role in raising the kids.”
According to the 27-year-old, returning to England made him feel like he was in heaven. So, we’re completely confused about the connection he’s making between beating and discipline. Well, it’s been 13 years since he last visited Nigeria. We can only suggest a trip back home for proper education – without beating, of course – on what Nigerian culture really is.
Meanwhile, we’re here for his success in boxing as he’s on course to become Britain’s most popular heavyweight. He has won all the 18 fights he has been in as a professional, and he is the first British heavyweight to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title by a major professional sanctioning body.
His fight with Klitschko on April 29 is expected to draw a crowd of 90,000 people – the biggest in boxing in the UK since the Second World War.
(Photo: AJ Boxing)
(Photo: Standard UK)
Author: Chief Editor
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