Duro Ikhazuagbe
17 November 2008
Lagos — The changes at the top hierarchy of the National Sports Commission (NSC) that saw the exit of Dr Amos Adamu as Director-General, may have upset calculations as to who becomes the next president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
Checks have revealed that plans to have Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam to replace Violet Odogwu-Nwajei at the next polls, coming up early next year, may have ran into troubled waters with the exit of Dr. Adamu.
It has been further learnt that based on this new reality, the current athletics chief that was almost giving up hopes for a second term, with Adamu still in power, has started revving-up her campaign machinery, reaching out to stakeholders on the need to back her for another term.
Although election guidelines are yet to be released, Yomi Adeyemi-Wilson, a former Exxon-Mobil external affairs manager who once presided over the AFN has also thrown his hat in. He is trying to get a comeback, having ruled the federation before.
Adeyemi-Wilson, given his conservative background, is said to be taking the race purely as service to the sport, and as a result of his stance on the issue, he is not ready to kowtow to any of the known kingmakers in the sporting family, to land the top job.
A close associate of Adeyemi-Wilson revealed in confidence at the weekend that the former oil chief has learnt from the few mistakes he made while occupying the seat the last time and is now ready to give the federation a new lease of life.
"He has learnt from those mistakes, he probably committed in the past. You know, we all need a little bit of experience in anything we do. He has had some. He has become more accommodating and diplomatic. And no one should forget he has always been a team player. However, now, he is even more of that and if he gets another chance, everyone can be sure he would be carrying all along in proposals and vision. He has plenty of that. His biggest advantage is in the fact that he is a principled and 'Made Man' who is not coming to look for what to eat but seeking to make an impact and record his name for posterity."
However, foot soldiers of Odogwu-Nwajei have made out their lady is not ready to surrender her position without a fight. Last week, the AFN boss who is also one of the five vice-presidents of the continental body, the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), told a television network in one of her campaign messages that she has done enough for Nigerian athletics to deserve a second tenure.
She said during the programme: "My records are there for everyone to see. Apart from that, I was a tested athlete for the country in my active days on the track. I won medals for this country as an athlete. As AFN president, my tenure has also brought Olympic medals of various colours. I raked in sponsors for many events. And we all know that in the course of my term, the Lagos International Half-Marathon has been growing into something of a global brand, courtesy of my efforts to get the sponsor, Globacom, to make it one of their top marketing account."
Although all this can be seen as Odogwu-Nwajei's achievement, but most critics of her critics are critical of her inability to initiate and sustain developmental programmes aimed at getting fresh athletes to take over from old ones. These critics point at the disappearance of the monthly athletics Classics, a grassroots programme that at a point was like the Nigerian benchmark in the sport for road-mapping the future.
Beside Adeyemi-Wilson, Odogwu-Nwajei and Suswam for the position of the president, other names such as that of Chief Solomon Ogba and Brown Ebewele are being touted as possible candidates for the job. Ogba, erstwhile Delta State Sports Commissioner has a good record of performance at his Niger Delta state level. Most of the current generation of national athletes were products of his reign when he was in government in Delta.
Only last week, Sunday Bada, the performance/technical director of AFN refused attempts to be dragged into the race. Bada insisted that as a service police superintendent, he still has his future in the service ahead of him and would only consider running when he is near his retirement stage.
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