Stakeholders have hailed the emergence of Dr. Musa Oshodi as helmsman of the Judo Federation (NJF).
Oshodi was overwhelmingly elected after the former president, Mr. Timothy Nsirim was impeached for anti-federation activities.
Dr. Musa Oshodi
A lecturer and judo coach at the Bayero University, Kano, Mr Ado Umar said Oshodi’s emergence was the greatest thing to have happened to Nigerian judo since inception of the federation.
He said: “will now be respected in the comity of judo nations and the international bodies because our country has at long last conformed to their statutes.
Umar said all along Nigeria had been in breach of Article 40 of the African Judo Union constitution which insists that the president of every national federation must be a judoka of at least first Dan.
“Nigeria had always ignored this requirement and this had adversely affected the position of the country in the AJU and the International Judo Federation. Other countries had complied and that put them in a better position than Nigeria in the international politics of the game,” he said.
He enthused that with Oshodi at the helm, Nigeria would take her rightful place in the scheme of things.
“Oshodi is a judoka who speaks the language of judo. So when he attends any of the meetings of AJU or IJF, he would find it easy to communicate and get the international respect”.
“In very short time all the support and assistance which we had been missing because we did not have the right leadership will come our way in terms of equipment, funds and other developmental programmes”, Umar added.
Umar who is a member of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF) noted that taekwondo has benefitted from the practice of having practitioners as helmsmen of the federation.
“Taekwondo in Nigeria has been flourishing because the federation has always had a practitioner as the head. Judo would begin to enjoy what taekwondo has been enjoying all these years now that a practitioner is in control”.
On his part, Mr.Segun Gbayi who is the athletes’ representative on the board of the NJF said all judokas were excited about Oshodi’s emergence as president.
He said: “This is the first time one of us is the head of the federation and we are really happy because having played judo he would understand our situation. Under Dr. Oshodi, the judoka’s welfare would be the priority of the board”
Gbayi added that even as the Vice President of the federation and chairman of the technical committee, Oshodi was very concerned about the judokas’ welfare.
Gbayi who described the emergence of Oshodi as a divine occurrence revealed that judokas all over the country had been praying for the day a judoka would lead the federation.
A sports enthusiast and commentator Mr. Callistus Idoreyin said the country’s judo would be transformed under the presidency of Oshodi because according to him practitioners administer martial arts better.
“The taekwondo story is a classic example of what federations benefit when practitioners are in charge. The Taekwondo Federation came into existence in the 90’s but it has achieved a lot compared with judo which had a federation way back in the early 70s. While only practitioners have been running taekwondo, all manner of men have been running judo”.