By Uzor Odigbo
Former Nigeria sprint hurdles star, Moses Orode Oyiki has called for the resignation of Solomon Dalung,the Minister of Youth and Sports.
Oyiki who represented Nigeria at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta,USA is baffled by the minister’s continued intervention in the affairs of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria following the setting up of a five-man panel by the Minister to investigate allegations of doping against the vice president of the Federation, Olamide George.
”It appears the minister, a learned colleague has no grasp of Sports law. He appears to be ignorant of the fact that sport issues are dealt with mainly by duly constituted bodies as contained in IAAF Guidelines to National Federations and the bodies must adhere to strict time limits set by the IAAF in its guidelines on Anti-Doping measures among other requirements.
The Minister cannot constitute an Anti-doping Committee for a doping violation the main offender, Ms. Folashade Abugan had been banned for and served her two-year term,’wrote Oyiki on facebook in reaction to the constitution of the panel.
Oyiki also lambasted the Minister for daring to suspend George who was elected by the Congress of the AFN.
He said: ”Leading to the Federation elections he (the Minister) produced a “Code of Governance 2017” for the National Sports Federations. He is in breach of his own doctored pamphlet. A doping violation by a stretch of the imagination would come under the hubris ‘misconduct’ which is an impeachable conduct by his (the Minister’s ) ‘code’,’he further wrote and revealed that only the Congress of the AFN can impeach or suspend George.
”Those to impeach the alleged offender are stated in the ‘code’. The minister or his cohorts cannot suspend the Vice President arbitrarily. He has a report of an Investigative Panel he set up which sat on 1 November 2017. If he is not happy with the report he should proceed to CAS.”
”We are sick and tired of his incompetence. He is causing more confusion and disaffection than any Minister in living memory. We don’t condone cheating in athletics. You can’t continue to pursue a matter in which the accuser could not provide or produce any tangible and acceptable proof against Mr. George.
”He cannot continue to set up panels attending to the same issue ad infinitum until his desired report or outcome is achieved. This is despicable and unbecoming of a Minister under the Buhari regime of change.
“I call on the Minister to resign forthwith and an audit of the Ministry’s accounts under his regime should be undertaken immediately. If he does not do the needful by resigning, the President should intervene immediately.”
Athletics observers are also worried by Dalung’s apparent lack of knowledge of the Ministry he is superintending over as they claim international sports are governed by conventions and statutes and that only the AFN as the governing body of the sport in Nigeria and an affiliate of the IAAF have the sole authority to investigate doping cases and report to the international body and not the Sports Minister.