Sports minister, Sunday Akinlabi Dare has again thrown his full weight behind the board of Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), led by Honourable George Olamide, as the nation’s number one personality in the sporting sector says he can only work with a duly recognized group that has the majority of members, megasportsarena.com reports.
The minister hinted that he is aware of another faction fronting as the authentic board of the AFN, but he reasoned that it would be wrong to support only two members against ten, hence his unequivocal declaration that the federal ministry of sports is fully behind Olamide’s group.
He went on to state categorically that that the ministry will not work with the AFN’s suspended president, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau, who no longer holds a quorum in the track and field body, which is in contrast with the relevance now accorded Olamide, who Dare says he will partner effectively to ensure all-round improvements and better welfare for the nation’s athletes.
This comes after Gusau was in November suspended from office, due to alleged disobedience and refusal to act on instruction by the former minister of youth and sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung to relieve Sunday Adeleye, former AFN technical director, of his duties.
Gusau was also accused of mismanaging $135, 000 grant mistakenly sent to the AFN by global body for track and field, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now World Athletics, as well as a case of unaccounted $150, 000, for which the acting president, Olamide, recently set up a panel to investigate the ‘missing’ money.
In reaction to all these developments, Gusau’s faction held a congress in Akwa, Anambra State where the group declared that they are no longer subordinate to the sports ministry and went on to openly label themselves an autonomous body, but Dare has again disowned the faction.
He, however, went on to clarify that, in taking that open stand, he and other officials in the sports ministry are not giving rein to interference in the day-to-running of the track and field body, only that they have to play an oversight and advisory role in terms of intervening when and where necessary, in order to put things right, as they would do for any other sports body.
Dare said: “The case of the Athletic Federation is quite clear. It’s about the majority getting deserved recognition. We recognize the Olamide group, because a 10-member board has more credibility than that with only two members. As we are doing for every other association under us, we are giving due recognition to the majority, which is the right way to go about such issues. We are ready to intervene without interfering.”
