October 01, (THEWILL) – On Thursday, in elections conducted into the National Sports Federation at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, the accredited voters exercised their electoral responsibilities to decide presidents and vice presidents of the boards of sporting federations with a slew of unopposed candidates.
However, among those who faced a tough election battle was Boye Oyerinde, the South-West representative on the Nigeria Squash Federation (NSF) board, who was re-elected as the federation’s President in the Thursday polls.
According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), Mr Oyerinde was re-elected to the presidency of the NSF by a razor-thin margin. During the elections, conducted at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, he received six votes out of the 11 cast, defeating his opponent Sunday Wilson, who received five votes, by one vote.
Mr. Oyerinde pledged more training and competitions for players and officials in his post-election remarks, saying that he would continue where he left off in terms of improving the fortunes of Squash in the country.
He said: “If you’ve followed Squash in the last four years, we’ve tried to be more visible. You know our sport by design is hidden, if there is a Squash court around here, you probably wouldn’t know.
“So, in essence, we need more media publicity to help us project the image of the game in the country. We need to have more presence on social media and that’s exactly what we are going to do more in this new dispensation.”
Prior to his first tenure, according to Oyerinde, nothing was occurring in the sport of squash in the country. And given the status quo, he claimed he had accomplished a lot in the last four years.
He detailed some of these improvements: “Today, there is a lot going on. Squash has been approved by the Professional Squash Association to be played in Nigeria and is now a compulsory sport at the National Sports Festival.
“We now have a database of our players and a functional website where you can view our national ranking and our players are categorised from U-13, U-16, U-19 and the Seniors. We’ve also added more medals at the sports festival with the doubles. So, we have mixed doubles, (and) we have male and female doubles.”
“For the first time in 20 years, we were able to participate at the men’s world team championship in 2019 and we hope to follow that up with participation in 2021 in Malaysia later this year.
“So, the good thing for us is that we are not starting where we were four years ago. We now have a solid foundation to build on. We have a fantastic team, moving forward, and you will see the difference in the way we ramp up our programmes as we develop.”
Yakubu Mailafia of the North-West zone was chosen Vice-President of the federation, defeating his opponent, Umar Yusuf, who received four votes.
Unlike Oyerinde, Uyi Akpata had it easy as he was elected President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) after running unopposed. Akpata, who is the federation’s immediate-past Vice-President and the board’s South-South representative, received 11 votes out of the 11 accredited voters.
In his post-election speech, Akpata highlighted the need to do more to grow the sport: “The last four years have witnessed giant strides in cricket and we think it was unanimous then. But now we need to explore the potential further.
“We have set five significant objectives for ourselves. First is increasing the number at the grassroots. We are committed to introducing the game to 250,000 kids each year.
“Second is increasing our rankings, third is constructing facilities, fourth is building partnerships and, lastly, putting in place good governance structures that will attract sponsors.”
Meanwhile, also unopposed, Obalola Oyewale, a member of the previous board, was elected Vice-President of NCF.
Kelvin Erhumwmunse may not have been unopposed but he was the overwhelming favourite as he was re-elected President of the Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria (GFN) after defeating Kafilat Olalere with nine votes out of a possible twelve. Muhammed Baba-Inuwa was also re-elected as Vice-President of GFN unopposed.
Ademola Are, cruised to victory as the former Director of Grassroots Sports Development at the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, was elected unopposed as President of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation. He immediately promised to bring all warring factions of the Federation together.
Are ran unopposed and received 10 votes from the 11 accredited voters. Reacting after his victory, Are thanked the delegates for their confidence in him while stating that his first point of call will be to unite the federation.
The victor pointed out the essence of going unopposed in his post-election speech: “Coming out unopposed has shown the kind of trust the stakeholders have in my ability.
“The first thing is to reconcile all parties involved. We will have to sit down and settle our differences and come together as a body, ensuring that personal interests and ego do not replace national interest.
“Rugby is doing very well but the in-fighting we had did not make us reap the benefits of the game.”
Kenneth Minimah, the President of the Nigeria Boxing Federation, was re-elected on Thursday, defeating former vice President Joseph Ayeni eight votes to five. After the Federation was disbanded by the Sports Minister in April, Ayeni was chosen as the interim committee head.
After a 7-6 victory over Uche Nutofo, Azania Omo-Agege was elected vice President of the federation.
In other elections, Silas Agara, a former Nasarawa State deputy governor, was re-elected as President of the Karate Federation of Nigeria. Agara, who also ran unopposed, received eight votes to win the election held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium.
He swiftly re-committed himself to bringing the sport to the grassroots: “I want to assure Nigerians that we’ll do our best in the next four years to reposition karate effectively in the country. We will ensure that we make karate more popular in all the six geo-political political zones of the country through quality championships.”
Musa Oshodi, a former Vice-President of the Nigeria Judo Federation, was elected President of the Nigeria Judo Federation. Oshodi, who ran unopposed, received 12 votes and easily won the election.
The Nigeria Hockey Federation returned a new president, Simon Nkom, elected without opposition and receiving the maximum 11 votes to win.
Giandomenico Massari, the immediate past President of the Nigerian Cycling Federation, was also re-elected unopposed.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
