Federations: Ndanusa hails greater autonomy

The President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee Sanni Ndanusa has described the move by the National Sports Commission to grant more autonomy to the sporting federations as a quality development and in fact long over-due.

He said that the new policy would move Nigerian sports forward and make administration of sports in the country in tune with global best practices.

“Greater autonomy will definitely make the Federations more effective, especially if adequate monitoring mechanism is put in place. The NSC should give the federations targets and review their performance yearly to ensure success of this policy,” Ndanusa said.

Earlier this week, the NSC announced plans to recall secretaries of all the federations and empower them to appoint their own secretaries. The NSC officials said it was in line with their commitment to reform the federations and reposition them for greater efficiency.

The NSC will however set the guidelines for the appointment of secretaries and develop eligibility guidelines that will guide elections and appointments into the boards of these federations.

Also Kayode Abdulwahab, president of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, said that the new policy would improve performance and is “akin to putting the right step forward in a race.”

 “I am convinced that the federations have the capacity to rise to higher pedestal if we enjoy similar support in terms of manpower and sponsorship to what is enjoyed in football,” he said.

He praised the Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi for being passionate about all sports and for not just being a ‘Minister of Football.’