When asked who else skateboarded when he was young, Nigerian skater Samuel “Kaiser/Ziggy” Zakari laughed, “That’s an interesting question, because no one even knew what skateboarding was.”
In 2010, when Zakari, then 17, first discovered skateboarding, skating legend Tony Hawk had already retired from X Games competition. Zakari had Tony Hawk video games in mind, but had never seen a skateboard in person before buying his first board. He stayed up late practicing, hoping his father couldn’t hear the wheels rolling outside his apartment. “I was the only one in the dark,” Zakari recalled.
Despite its popularity in other countries, skateboarding is unfamiliar to most Nigerians, Zakari said. For him, it was “like a new reality opening up.”
Now 31 years old, Zakari leads Super Glider House, a skateboarding coaching and management company that builds opportunities for young skaters. He holds weekly skateboarding clinics for kids of all ages at the WAF Skatepark in Lagos, Nigeria.
WAF Park is Nigeria’s first public concrete skatepark, built in 2024 on the grounds of a colonial-era prison. The project was led by WAFFLESNCREAM, also known as waf., a skate culture and fashion brand that is a pioneer in the emerging skateboarding scene in the country.
This year, an official national team, Team Nigeria Skateboarding, was established with support from the Roller Sports Federation of Nigeria (RSFN), providing professional sponsorship and a path to international competition. It’s a lot different than when Zakari first picked up a board.
When Zakari started, he taught himself using YouTube videos and practiced on empty basketball courts as a solution to the rough roads in Lagos. Old people would shout, “Get a job!” as he passed by.
Zakari finally found a small group of musicians, street dancers, and creatives who felt the same connection to skating.
“We didn’t even look at it as a sport,” he said. “It was like therapy for us, but we didn’t realize that at the time.”
Together they scouted the smooth concrete and road features of parking lots, or the forgotten vacant lots around Lagos’ National Stadium. Despite the lack of official recognition or meeting space, the group gradually grew. They were often chased away by security or had their boards confiscated, Zakari recalled.
Zakari noticed that the younger children were watching him with interest. In those eyes, he says he recognized the desire for guidance he also felt. He loaned the youngsters boards and gave them tips while they waited patiently for their turns.
“When I started, I didn’t have anyone to inspire me, so it was a part of me to do this and to empower kids,” Zakari told CNN.
2023, Wah. We worked with Wonders Around the World, a volunteer-run nonprofit that builds free public skateparks in underserved areas such as Africa, Asia, and Central America. A crew of local skaters and international volunteers handcrafted WAF Park.
Zakari’s leadership was formalized with the creation of the park, which will give skaters an official base in Lagos. His Super Glider House offers private coaching and athlete management for a nominal fee, and Zakari also holds weekly group skating clinics at the park sponsored by waf. team.
Zakari said his training sessions focus not only on skateboarding tricks, but also on other lessons that skating can teach, such as kindness, focus and persistence.
“Even before WAF Park was built, there was a community…the community was vibrant and going strong,” Zakari said. “The park has helped strengthen the community.”
Fahad Bello is an original member of WAF. Pro skaters agreed. “This park is a place for everyone here to visit,” he said. “A lot of people here didn’t have anything, and skateboarding created a new avenue.”
Joseph Omojuwa, a 16-year-old rising star, started skating around the same time WAF Park was completed. Zakari gave him the nickname Skywalker and took him under his protection.
“At that time, he didn’t have any shoes on. He came skating barefoot. I used to give him my board,” Zakari said.
Omojuwa watched with fascination as the park was being constructed. “I didn’t know what a skate park was,” he says. After renting a board for a few days, Zakari arranged to get a board, wheels and shoes. All of these were donated by skate companies.
“Then I started skating every day from about 7 a.m. until lights out at 10 a.m.,” Omojuwa said.
Last January, under the auspices of the RSFN, Omojuwa traveled to neighboring Benin for the Francophone Youth Skating Championships with Zakari as his coach, where he won gold.
Most recently, Omojuwa starred in an international campaign between waf. and Adidas, modeling the sportswear company’s new shoes designed with waf. He is a creative director and is inspired by the Lagos skate scene.
WAF appeared in the promotional photo shoot. Community members rather than models, Omojuwa is at the core, along with Zakari, Bello, and co-founder and creative director Jomi Marcus Bello.
But parts of Omojuwa’s story show that the sport still has a long way to go before it is officially recognized in Africa.
The Nigeria Skateboarding Team, which was only officially launched this year, believed that if Omojuwa won gold at the Francophone Youth Championships, he would automatically qualify for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. However, it has emerged that the Benin Games are not officially recognized as an Olympic qualifier by World Skate, the governing body for roller sports accredited by the Nigerian Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee. At that point, Omojuwa had not qualified for the Nigeria team.
“We believe that when government systems are inadequate, we need to step up community-led efforts,” Imoh Ekasi-Otu, a Nigerian-American skater and director of marketing and skateboard development for RSFN, told CNN.
“Africa has a lot of young people who can compete at a higher level,” Ekashi-Otu said. However, he added, “the path for African skaters is often defined by institutional hurdles” due to limited facilities, visa restrictions and high travel costs to get to qualifying rounds.
He said RSFN plans to build a stronger relationship with the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) to “ensure skateboarding gets the institutional support it deserves.”
Ekasi-Otu also runs the U.S.-African nonprofit SHAPE (Skateboards for Hope, Action, Progress, and Empowerment), which helps African youth access skateboarding internationally. He said there are plans to develop facilities in Nigeria to “build a long-term pathway for future generations to reach the world stage.” SHAPE supports the Nigerian Skateboard Team and RSFN.
SHAPE will sponsor about six young Africans, including Omojuwa, to visit the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympics to receive instruction, experience the atmosphere and even ride at the Olympic Skate Park. Funds are being raised to sponsor travel and lodging through an arts philanthropy event in Washington, D.C., on October 2nd.
“When I started, there was no one to inspire me,” Zakari said. “Now I feel like these kids have a chance to blossom sooner…because they have an image to look at and someone to show it to.” Despite the disappointment of the Youth Olympics, he saw Omojuwa being an inspiration to the younger generation.
Super Glider House, waf., Team Nigeria Skateboarding and RSFN are all pushing to increase the visibility of skateboarding in the country.
“Skateboarding is more than just a sport in Nigeria,” Ekasi-Otu said. “For our youth, it has become an important outlet, a safe haven, and a form of creative self-expression.”
