The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has warned all sport federations in the country to design and submit their constitution to avoid sanctions.
President of the NOC Habu Gumel hands down this warning while speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day seminar organised by the International Olympic Committee and NOC on "Good governance in sports" in Abuja on Thursday.
While disclosing that the government will no longer design guidelines for future elections into the sports federations’ boards, he said elections will be based on the provisions of the federations’ respective constitutions.
"The issue of constitution is very important", he said. "We gave a deadline, it has passed and we have given another deadline."
"This is the last time we are going to use guidelines for election. Future elections will be conducted using your constitution," Gumel noted.
Speaking on the seminar, the NOC President said it is a milestone in the annals of Nigeria’s sports, adding that the "issue of good governance and best practices in administration has taken the centre stage of global sports with major stakeholders battling with ethical issues…"
On his part, Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung said the seminar will help set the national federations on the right path of administrative competences and best practices in governing their sports.
Represented by the Director of Research and Statistics in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Hawa Kulu Akinyemi, he said a lot had be done in entrenching democratic process in the country’s federations election.
Dalung however noted that the process was not perfect yet, "as the plan is to align with global best practices of sports federations conducting their elections using their respective approved statues and constitution."
The IOC expert, Dr. Donald Rukare. who will conduct the seminar, said the major problem in Nigeria was how to get the federations to perform optimally.
While noting that if leadership and governance is right, sports will improve drastically in Nigeria.
"We will try to find solution to some of your problems," he assured.
NOC to use Federations constitution for future elections
The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has warned all sport federations in the country to design and submit their constitution to avoid sanctions. President of the…