Wikki Tourists’ Idris Guda seek to emulate Kano Pillars, Katsina United on NPFL return

By Wale Mustapha

Captain of Wikki Tourists, Idris Guda has revealed that the club’s ambition in the coming Nigeria National League, NNL season is to go the ways of Kano Pillars and Katsina United who staged an immediate return to the country’s topflight after just a season in the lower division.

Wikki suffered relegation from the 2022/2023 abridged NPFL season after a miserable season in Group B that saw them losing lots of games at home and the Bauchi Elephants have since commenced preparations for life in the lower division with the signing of new players and appointment of Mohammed Baba Ganaru as their new coach.

Guda, who was left disappointed with how Wikki fared last season said the focus for new campaign in the NNL is to gain promotion back to Premier at first time of asking.

“To be honest, I felt really disappointed that we couldn’t survive the relegation fight. Personally, it was painful because I felt like a captain who failed to save his ship from sinking,” Guda told Daily Trust.

“However, since we win together and lose together, I tried not to be too hard on myself. But it was a terrible feeling to see Wikki Tourists go on relegation again.

“We are right now working on how to immediately return to the NPFL where we rightly belong. At the moment, we have a new coach who is well experienced and ready to lead us in the Nigeria National League (NNL). We also have in our fold new players who have the quality to help us in the fight for promotion. I am quite optimistic that we would be promoted to the NPFL at the end of the 2024 season.

“Surely, we are inspired by what Kano Pillars and Katsina United did to immediately return to the NPFL. We are planning to do what they did to bounce back immediately. We have learnt from our mistakes of last season and we are ready to correct them. Kano Pillars and Katsina United did the same and that is why they are back in the topflight. We are going to emulate them to return to the NPFL,”

The NNL has been adjudged as the most difficult and competitive league in the country but the former Flying Eagles’ attacker expressed Wikki’s readiness to sail through it and achieve the season’s targets.

“Yes, whenever you find yourself in a difficult situation, you have to quickly adjust to it. We were used to playing in the Nigerian topflight but all that has changed now. It is a new phase and we are ready to adjust to life in the lower division.

“I know it is not going to be easy but we will adjust ourselves to the situation on ground and try to do what other clubs like Kano Pillars and katsina United did to return to the NPFL. We are already out of our comfort zone so we have to fight to rise again.”

The 2023/2024 NNL season is expected to kick start in September.