Stakeholders Anxious Over Delay In Reshuffling Federations’ Secretaries

IKPO IGBINOBA 

Five months after elections into national sports federations, stakeholders are still waiting with bated breath for the redeployment of secretaries.

The last federation elections were held on September 30th, 2021 in Abuja.

Hitherto, immediately after the elections, federation secretaries were reshuffled. 

The delay in the redeployment of secretaries this time round is causing a lot of tension and confusion in some sports’ federations.

In the run-up to the 2021 federation elections, some secretaries took their partisanship to the extreme by brazenly campaigning for their candidates.

Unfortunately, their preferred candidates were trounced black and blue during the elections.

Since the boards were inaugurated on October 8th, 2021, there has been a frosty relationship between some secretaries and their federations’ presidents. 

This development has constituted a clog in the wheel of progress for some federations.

The reality is that if some aggrieved Presidents had their way, some secretaries could have been given the boot immediately after the boards were inaugurated.

But the Presidents who though are the chief executive officers of their federations don’t have the powers to sack their secretaries.

However, they can ask the Sports Ministry to redeploy such errant, rebellious  and disloyal secretaries. 

The story mill has been buzzing over the unusual delay in the reorganisation. 

One of such stories is that some directors who are godfathers to some secretaries are opposed to the reorganisation.

According to a source “These godfathers know that if the reorganisation takes place, it would affect their favourite secretaries who are in juicy federations”.

“And these directors can do anything to protect their favourites especially in this year of the Commonwealth Games”. 

Unfortunately, the delay is not in the interest of Nigerian sports which has over the years witnessed a phenomenal decline from its Olympic height to being a laughing stock in the comity of sporting nations.