Former Nigeria international and retired Director-General of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Patrick Ekeji has hailed the dissolution of the National Sports Federations by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development,Chief Sunday Dare.
The Sports Federations were dissolved Friday by the Sports Minister and caretaker committees set up to oversee their affairs until after the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled for late July and early August.
Nigerians have been divided over the constitutionality of the action of the Sports Minister but Dr Ekeji who is currently the Imo State Deputy Chief of Staff (Administration) says the controversy is needless because of the extant laws that guide the federations.
”In so far as the terminal locus of sports federations remain the way they presently are, other than the Nigeria Football Federation,the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is at liberty to dissolve boards any time from the expiration of the tenure that ushered them in. No more no less,”said Dr Ekeji.
The dissolved boards of the sports federations were inaugurated in June 2017 and their tenure is scheduled to expire this June with new executive boards sworn in.
While a few of the sports federations have their constitutions which will serve as guide in the conduct of the elections,the remaining federations will be guided by the Code of Governance for Sports which the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development used in the conduct of the elections that ushered them in in 2017.
”As far as I know, in so far as the elected federations tenure is run out and it is stated in their Constitution, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development can dissolve, or for any reason extend their tenure. That’s what can no longer happen with the NFF,”Dr Ekeji added.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria is among the about seven sports federations that have its constitution and article 10.4 of the constitution (2017) empowered the Sports Minister to dissolve the board.
Article 10.4 of the AFN constitution titled Dissolution reads thus:The AFN board may be dissolved by the pronouncement of the FMYSD at the expiration of four years of ofice in line with the Olympic cycle’.
