October 05, (THEWILL) –Â Following its examination of the National Anti-Doping Committee’s (NADC) continuous monitoring programme, corrective action plan, and efforts to resolve the same, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has signed off on all outstanding critical and high priority corrective actions required of Nigeria.
This most recent update was relayed to Nigeria in two separate letters addressed to the NADC, dated August 2nd and 4th, 2021.
In the text of the first letter, WADA concluded that the NADC had taken steps to address critical concerns as necessary. It read: “Following the review of your continuous monitoring programme, corrective action plan and your responses to address the required critical and high priority corrective actions, we are pleased to inform you that WADA has concluded that your organisation has appropriately addressed all critical corrective actions.”
The good news was contained in the second letter which was specifically addressed to Dr Fadekemi Fadeyibi, the head of NADC. It read, in part: “Following the latest developments, we have signed off in the CCC the remaining critical corrective action. Therefore the relevant compliance procedure has now been closed.”
Nigeria has, by implication, adequately remedied all of the non-conformities found with its national anti-doping programme and code compliance that led to the country’s delisting by WADA on December 6, 2018.
Although WADA restored Nigeria soon after acknowledging the initial steps taken by NADC, the implementation of these corrective activities was judged incomplete until WADA recently acknowledged that they were being carried out satisfactorily.
Nigeria was designated as a non-compliant code signatory in December 2018 due to inadequacies found in the NADC’s national anti-doping programme, and was ordered to take immediate corrective action.
With the House of Representatives Committee on Sports holding a public hearing to address the non-eligibility of ten Nigerian athletes to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in July and August, it is expected that legislative support could not have come at a better time to end the embarrassment of Nigerian athletes being barred from competing in continental and global sports fiestas.
Nigeria’s anti-doping administration, with the correct legislation, can now compete with significant national anti-doping organisations (NADOs) with stiff regulations in the African region, such as the South African and Kenyan NADOs.
The Sports Committee has already requested Sunday Dare, the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, to come before it and explain what transpired in Tokyo.
However, the need to get to the bottom of the Tokyo scandal, implies that the immediate past board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), which is recognised by both World Athletics and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), ought to explain why it neither appointed a qualified anti-doping officer nor established an anti-doping committee to oversee Nigeria’s compliance with required standards.
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.
