Youth and Sports Development Minister, Sunday Dare, says his ministry will ensure fairness and a level playing field for all those aspiring to get into the boards of national sports federations later this month.
National sports federations elections are usually battlegrounds and hotspots for bitter rivalries and agitations oftentimes leading to long drawn feuds and litigations, a trend the Sports Minister hopes to discontinue the forthcoming polls.
In a press release obtained by TheNiche, the minister said: “We hope there would not be bitter agitations and litigations that will hurt our sports this time around.”
He added: “Although it is in the nature of politics to have complaints, disagreements and those who will feel that they did not get a fair bargain and so would resort to litigation. These are all part of politics. However, we do not want that kind of winner takes all politics in our sports. I hope we will not have cases that will cripple and hurt our sports as we had with some federations in the past.”
Dare further explained that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development would not interfere in the electoral process or seek to favour particular candidates or persons in any of the federations.
“We have no vested interests, we are not imposing candidates on any federation. We will be observers alongside the Nigeria Olympic Committee(NOC).
“The electoral and appeals committees have credible persons on board who will ensure all processes are transparent, free and fair. We have to trust the process and have a bigger interest in sports in our hearts. All the processes for redress for those who may feel aggrieved have been spelt out. I believe if they are followed we will have sports federations elections we will all be proud of,” he said.
According to the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, national sports federations with their constitutions already ratified by their congresses and International federations will organise their elections in line with those approved constitutions while those without approved constitutions will have their elections conducted according to the guidelines released by the ministry.