Peter Temade leads new Rugby Players Union

The Nigeria Rugby Players Union/Association was finally inaugurated on Thursday, 24th April, 2025 in an online meeting which also elected its interim executive headed by a former hard fighting Hooker Mr Peter Temade as Chairman. Peter played Rugby since 2001for Lagos Rugby Club, Racing Rugby Club and recently for the Abuja Rugby Club. He was also a national rigby team Hooker for several years featuring at Super 16, Africa Cup Qualifiers, Commonwealth Qualifiers and World Cup Africa Rugby Qualifiers to amongst others.

He is flanked by another older player Mr Taleeb of the then Eko Islanders RFC and now with Racing RFC as a player assistant coach as Vice Chairman. In secretary position is Mr Chidera Felix Iheme.

The Rugby Players Union is the umbrella body of all Rugby Players in the country to take care of their welfare, advocating for player rights by Ensuring players’ voices are heard and their rights are protected. A Rugby Players Union typically represents the interests of rugby players through Collective Bargaining by Negotiating contracts and agreements; with governing bodies, leagues, or teams to secure fair compensation, benefits, and playing conditions for players.

The newly elected Chairman Otemade said, “Rugby players want to play the game on the pitch instead of the Social Media. We need matches as has been in the past when we even sponsored ourselves to represent this country and won laurels on several occasions.

“This country has lost grounds on the international scene because we achieved much more in the past and kept the players busy. We need to have National Tournaments and National Leagues which was the norm in the past. Unfortunately we have not had a National League and Tournaments in the last four years apart from the Female Tournament which was held two years ago in Delta and could not be held again so far. The Male didn’t have anything done. Last year some players got themselves together to play in a South West Rugby League in Lagos and Edo hosted a South-South Rugby League and unfortunately again nothing happened in the North which had been running it’s programs irrespective of the national.”

The full list of the Executives

1. Chairman – Peter Otemade

2. Vice Chairman – Adeniji Taleeb Abiodun

3. Secretary – Chidera Felix Iheme

4. Treasurer – Adebor E Philip (Eazy)

5. Financial Secretary – Ibrahim Musa

6. PRO – Williams Ediongsenyene Ekpo

7. Chief Whip – Adebambo Remilekun

ZONAL REPS

North East – Mohammed Usman

North West – Abdulahi Audu

North Central – Obatoyinbo Afolabi

South East – Amarachi Orji

South South – Emeka Mathew

South West – Abubakar Tahiru

Female Reps

North – Cynthia Ishaya

South – Timitope Okoko