|
|
Nigeria: Doping Lab, Good for Country's Sport Devt - Okenla
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Leadership (Abuja)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Ishaku Kigbu
Abuja
The Doping Control Laboratory officially commissioned yesterday by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, represented by Sports Minister/Chairman, National Sports Commission, Abdulrahman Hassan Gimba has been described as an avenue to put Nigeria amongst the league of countries in the world that are ready to fight drug use in Sports.
Folorunsho Okenla, an executive of the Endo Nigerian Project (ENP) Netherlands and representative of the company in Nigeria, shortly after the official commissioning of the project that has gulped N300m said equipment in the laboratory are of the highest standard and matches any around the globe.
According to the former Nigerian football international, who is the chief executive of ENP Nigeria, the idea to start the multi-million naira project was borne out of the need to checkmate the increasing menace of drug use within our athletes. "After the embarrassing situation of our international athletes and two of our weight-lifters banned from participating in two consecutive Commonwealth Games, the need arose for a laboratory and after bidding, we were invited to come in based on our experience and international connections."
Okenla, who said the laboratory is the first of its kind in West Africa and third in the whole of Africa after Tunisia and South Africa, revealed that the project which started in 2001 had to take this long because of its capital intensiveness coupled with the fact that it had to be completed in phases.
He said the delay was also occasioned because the equipment had to be manufactured to meet world evolving dynamics and standards in detecting drugs used by athlete since need drugs are manufactured frequently for athletes use.
But that even with this state-of-the-art laboratory, there is the need for upgrading since drugs used by athletes are dynamic with new drugs being introduced.
"This will involve constant learning and training to meet up with present dynamics and effect corrections where need be. But our next phase, after that of procurement of equipment and installation is to advise the National Sports Commission to expose personnel to man the equipment for training and retraining, both within and outside the country," the sports management consultant said.
Okenla said that since Nigeria has embraced the fight against the use of drugs in sports by this venture, there is the need to plan for upgrading on yearly basis to match up with new challenges in drugs fight and detection.
|
He said ENP Netherlands, the parent company that put the project in place in collaboration with the National Sports Commission which he represents in Nigeria, has been in business for 80 years.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
