Rosa Collins, a member of the newly inaugurated board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, has faulted the emergence of Ibrahim Gusau as the body’s President.
Collins, who was reinstated as a representative of the National Association of Women in Sport, expressed her dissatisfaction on Monday during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
According to her, she came into the board to contest for Presidency, but met no level playground to actualise her ambition.
In spite of the inauguration of AFN’s board along with that of other sports bodies by Solomon Dalung, the Minister for Youths and Sports, last Friday, the former African triple jump champion said no presidential election was held in the federation.
Collins said: “The first election was cancelled because my name and that of Coaches/Officials’ representatives were dropped on Election Day; also majority of the delegates were excluded from voting.
“We presented our case to the Appeal Committee and we were reinstated into the board, myself and the Representative of Coaches/Technical Officials and the committee insisted that there should be a rerun election.”
Collins told NAN that the committee also called for Zonal Bye-election in the North-West because the preferred representative of candidate from North-East was also disqualified on Election Day to pave way for Gusau.
She said: “The rerun was earlier fixed for July 4 and later shifted to July 7, then to 12th, 19th and then Thursday, July 20 and the election was never held even after accreditation of delegates.
“Five out of seven delegates from the zone were on ground and ready to elect their zonal representative, but that never happened on Thursday even as they conducted zonal bye-election in other federations.
“It was a surprise to see the minister announcing the inauguration of Gusau as AFN President on the minister’s Facebook page, Gusau is not my President.
“The AFN guideline says aggrieved party should not go to court, so, we paid to present our case to the Appeal Committee commissioned by the minister, but the same minister had to reverse himself just after fixing date for the rerun.”
Collins added that the whole world was watching the way the minister was handling the election of AFN board, saying he would be better respected for ensuring diligence in the electoral process.
Similarly, Brown Ebewele, another member of the new AFN board, representing coaches and technical officials, expressed disappointment at the manner the federation’s president emerged.
Ebewele said: “Rosa did not contest from NAWIS to be just a member of the board; she came to the election to contest the presidency.
“She was denied the right in the federation’s election of June 13, she petitioned and the Appeal Committee said she should be reinstated and nullified the initial election.
“I have yet to understand why the minister will have to inaugurate a candidate of the cancelled election after postponing the rerun.
“I am going to meet the minister again and I believe he will have a change of mind, given the available facts around the emergence of the current AFN president.”
Also, Tom Boniface, the Vice-President, Kogi Athletics Association, said: “I want to appeal to the Federal Government of Nigeria to establish a Sports Commission at the federal level and in each state of the federation.
“The commission can report directly to the governor in the states or to the presidency at the federal level to ensure that the highest authorities intervened in controversial issues in sports.”
However, the minister said at the inauguration of federation boards that subsequent election into the federations would be in compliance with guidelines endorsed by stakeholders in the federation.
Dalung said: “I charged every federation board to produce a copy of its constitution for endorsement and submission to the ministry because this is the last time election to be conducted by the ministry.”