The erstwhile President and founder of Baseball and Softball in Nigeria, General Ishola Williams, has ceded the leadership of the association to Alhaji Jani Ibrahim, who until now was the Vice-President.
Williams, who has the credit of having promoted handball to national prominence, did the same to baseball and softball in Nigeria.
In a letter written to the Secretary General of Nigerian Baseball and Softball Association dated January 19, 2012, the retired General stated that the understanding was reached with Ibrahim at a meeting held during the IBAF Congress in the United States early in December 2011.
He wrote, “During your stay we had time to review NBSA activities past and present and its future and your role and responsibilities as a leader of these present and future activities.”
The transition in the baseball house will involve leadership change, re-organising the association with the new leader working with a group that is suitable at the national level.
Williams noted that his new assignment at the United Nations, New York, USA, had made it very difficult for him to be actively involved in the daily administration of the association.
Ibrahim, the technical director of the nation’s largest private oil blending firm, Lubcon Oil, has been a strong funder and supporter of the game since he made a dramatic entry into the game.
He is reputed to have funded the rehabilitation of the only baseball park in the continent, located in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
…Egbunike congratulates Ibrahim
Innocent Egbunike, the man who holds the greatest record of achievement in the nation’s athletics both as an athlete and a coach, has sent his congratulatory message to the new President of the Nigeria Baseball and Softball Association (NBSA) Inc., saying: “I hope his coming will bring the required fillip.”
Egbunike, who responded through a telephone interview from his American base, saidL “When I was informed, I felt so elated. I have not met Jani Ibrahim but when i asked questions and was told of his past contributions to the game, I felt something was right in the decision of General Ishola Williams to have given out the leadership to him.
“General Ishola Williams is one man who had tripped me over the years the way and manner he managed handball development in the country in the 1980s. It was such a nostalgic feeling. Then, when i am not running or practising, I always like to be watching handball due to the level of skill always in display. My favourite team then was the Grasshoppers of Owerri.”
Egbunike added: “While considering the athletics development project myself and some former international athletes are bringing into the country, one of the sport discipline we are looking at was baseball and softball. We even wrote the Association. We are yet to get a reply. With the new leadership, we shall look forward to working with the new leadership to make the game thick and produce world champions from our initiative.”