Sports federations give Dare 48 hours to reverse dissolution order

The aggrieved board members of 31 dissolved sports federations have kicked against the dissolution of their boards by Sunday Dare, the minister of youth and sports development.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the sports federations also gave the minister a 48-hour ultimatum to reinstate the discarded board members.

“The board members of the 31 sports federations hereby give the minister 48-hour ultimatum within which he is to rescind and reverse all unlawful pronouncements he made over the dissolution of duly appointed board members of sports federations or face appropriate reactions from the federations,” the statement read.

Dare had on Friday ordered the immediate sacking of all national sports federations boards while also establishing caretaker committees to oversee their affairs pending proper elections.

The development had prompted a series of negative responses.

The first came from Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, factional president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), who warned that such interference by the government into sports might incur sanctions from the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and hamper the country’s chances of participating at the games billed for Tokyo in July.

On his part, Solomon Dalung, the immediate past minister of youth and sports development, accused the Dare-led ministry of trying to cover its “inadequate preparedness” for the Olympics by “inventing drama”.

“The dissolution of the national sports federations is an unfortunate development. I think the ministry is not prepared for the Olympics and it’s trying to avoid the wrath of Nigerians by inventing drama,” the former minister had told TheCable.

But according to the statement, the affected boards claimed that the sports ministry lied about the expiration of their respective tenures.

The sports federations also condemned the establishment of caretaker committees, stating that such bodies wouldn’t be recognised by international organizations.

“Board members of the 31 Sports Federations met at the Presken Hotel, Abuja on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, and totally rejected the arbitrary and untimely dissolution of the boards of duly and democratically elected Federations,” the statement added.

“The board members also condemned and rejected the establishment of caretaker committees over duly and democratically elected sports federations whose tenures were yet to expire.

“The members unequivocally stated that on no account will the caretaker committees be recognized by the International bodies of the various sports federations in place of the duly elected boards.

“The federations noted that the minister of youth and sports and the federal ministry of youth and sports development lied when they claimed that the tenures of the boards have expired board elections were held on June 13, 2017, and the inauguration into office was done on July 10, 2017, for a 4-year tenure The tenure will therefore expire on July 10, 2021, and not April 30, 2021 when the federations were dissolved.

“Board members wish to Inform the public that no provision in the Code of Governance empowers the minister to dissolve Boards of duly and democratically elected federations and no legislation, law, regulation or instrument empowers the minister or the ministry of youth and sports development to set up caretaker committees.

“The minister and the federal ministry of youth and sports are urged to desist from jeopardizing the future of our youths especially Nigeria’s sportsmen and women, by putting the country at risk of being banned from participating at the forthcoming Tokyo Olympic Games.

“The board members restated that sports caretaker committees can never be allowed to replace duly elected boards whose tenures are yet to expire. lt also stated that it will do all in its power to stop autocracy in sports especially in a democratic dispensation.”