BEVERLY HILLS, April 28, (THEWILL) – In a concerted bid to resolve the lingering crisis that has taken far-reaching legal implications within the administration of athletics in Nigeria, the World Athletics (WA) ordered the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to hold its elective congress before June 14, as a way to get the Federation back under structured guidance and leadership.
This was the conclusion of a crisis resolution meeting between the representatives of the WA and the AFN held last week at the country’s capital in Abuja. Jackson Tuwei, the chairman of Athletics Kenya, and a Chief Executive Officer of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), led the visiting WA reps to the meeting and he was accompanied by a Senegalese Athletics official.
Their objective for the two-day visit to Abuja was to broker peace between the two disputing factions, one led by Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau and the other by Olamide George, at the leadership level of the AFN, which had been at loggerheads since 2020.
THEWILL recalls that this bitter tussle that has threatened to destroy the AFN began with the impeachment of Gusau, who was elected President of the Federation at the last polls.
But, discontent among officers of Gusau’s administration, amidst accusations of corrupt practices, resulted in his impeachment last year. Accordingly, George assumed the leadership in an acting capacity to the disagreement of a portion of the Federation, leading to the present upheaval.
The circumstances were not improved by the July judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja (Court 3), which ruled that Gusau remained the President of the body, regardless of the impeachment.
It struck out the “purported” suspension and subsequent impeachment of Gusau, as well as all other actions and resolutions taken by the Olamide George-led AFN. It concluded by setting aside the appointment of George as Acting President.
However, as THEWILL reported last month, no sooner had Gusau’s appeals been delivered than the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD), under which the Federation operates, lodged its appeal of the decision of the Appeals Court in Gusau’s favour with the Supreme Court of Nigeria. This necessitated the AFN to declare that his suspension still held until the resolution of the Supreme Court.
These disturbing factors formed the basis of the conflict resolution meeting between the WA and the AFN, which set the June 14 deadline for an elective congress so as to get a leadership with the mandate of the body into office and get the athletics machinery functioning optimally again.
Towards this end, three prospective candidates have indicated their interest in pursuing the Federation’s leadership position. One of these three is Omatseye Nesiama, who is the former Technical Director of the AFN, and has that experience standing for him favourably. The second candidate is a current chairman of one of the sports commissions in the South-South, while the third hopeful has not been made public yet.
Another current uncertainty pertains to the heads of the present warring factions and their intentions regarding the planned elective congress, as they were yet to state their interests in the new race for leadership of the AFN
While they consider their options and alternatives, a newer candidate, the United States-based former hurdler, Victor Okorie, indicated renewed interest in being on the new AFN Board upon inauguration.
Okorie, who is the founder of Southeast Sports Foundation and who has been sponsoring athletes and coaches at different events in the last two years, has had his interest endorsed by the five Directors of Sports in the Southeast ahead of the upcoming polls.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
