IOC representative commends Abdullahi, the Sports’ Minister.

[FMINigeria]

                        As the nation marks the mid-term anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan's administration, Nigeria's Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has been commended for the new vision and positive initiatives that he has brought into the management of sports in the country.

The commendation came from the International Olympic Committee Executive Board member and Nigeria's representative in the IOC, Engr. Habu Gumel in a press interaction recently, in Abuja.

While speaking to journalists on the evaluation of sports' administration in Nigeria, Gumel stated that since the coming on board of Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, sports' development has witnessed tremendous impact, especially with the new initiatives that have been introduced by the National Sports Commission.

According to Gumel, before the appointment of Abdullahi, sports' administration in Nigeria was almost declining to an embarrassingly abysmal level which manifestation got to a height with the poor performance of Team Nigeria at the 2012 London Olympics.

The former president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Habu Gumel was full of praises for Bolaji Abdullahi for the strength of character with which the Minister admitted the failure of Nigeria at the London Olympics saying that "It only takes a leader with serious vision and strong conviction to accept full responsibility for the performance of his team."

Engr. Gumel went further to say that the position of the Minister of Sports over the outcome of "Team Nigeria" was instrumental to the convocation of a retreat on sports which was hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan to revaluate the prospects of repositioning Nigerian sports.

The IOC member cited the re-invigoration of the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM) Board, the constitution of a League Management Company (LMC) as very laudable initiatives of Bolaji Abdullahi.

In the case of the League Management Company, Engr. Gumel posits that the introduction of the body to take charge of the Premier League was responsible for the peace which currently pervades football management in Nigeria today, especially with the resolution of sponsorship and rights issues as well as implementation of reforms that will improve the league.

The introduction of the National U-17 Youth Games is another initiative of the NSC under the leadership of Bolaji Abdullahi which the IOC representative said is an innovation that is going to bring about a new direction in the areas of talents hunt and grassroots sports development.

Gumel commended the Minister for the new vision which will not only produce new talents but will also go a long way in creating a platform for the nurturing of athletes and sports' talents discovered at the Youths Games  into the National Open Sports festival and the elite athletes class.

He expressed hope that the new funding policy introduced by the NSC will engender sports development in Nigeria as the various federations are now compelled to come up with objective schemes and programmes to enhance the capacity of the athletes as well as the different sport.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria