Ordinarily, no sane individual would react to a sponsored, shallow defence for a sports administrator exhibiting symptoms and high probability of multifarious failures;especially one who has abashed the country he represents at the global level.But for the sake of educating Nigerians,I will reply with facts.
The sponsored article titled,”NOC Congress 22:Who is Afraid of Habu Gumel?” This article was targeted at a group known as United Sports Stakeholders(a group consisting of revolutionists determined to change the face of sports in Nigeria for good).Suffice to say,yours truly is the spokesman for the group.
The article is all about greek to me, and also,no sane individual/group will sper with a writer/writers, struggling with facts to defend a benefactor with a cocktail of negligence as a sports administrator since the late 80s.
The most comic part of the article reads, “This group has gone to town, albeit lately, with campaigns of calumny to smear the hard-earned reputation of the incumbent president who is seeking re-election. (Friends in the day and enemies at night, they have cooked up fallacies to stir division among stakeholders in their hateful and blinded desire to tarnish a man whom God has bestowed with sterling leadership qualities and remarkable achievements in different endeavours of life including sports).”
Make no mistake, as a pure breed Nigerian,I will always respect and reverence elders, especially a grand pa. Infact,I was in primary school when he became the President of the Nigeria Volley Ball Federation(NVBF), a federation he successfully ran down.
Aside the his usual catchphrase of “my junior colleagues”(his slogan for addressing journalists),I have glared at his leadership style,and the only visible mantra has been dead duck/fiasco.
The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) under his leadership has been in financial slavery and servant-hood to the Federal Ministry of Sports.I hear they are boasting about the ANOCA building.Take away the Sports Ministry’s financial contribution.How much did the NOC under his leadership contribute?
Four years ago, Nigeria alongside Botswana,Tunisia and Senegal bidded to host the Youth Olympics. Unfortunately, our oga couldn’t deliver as a man by name Mamadu Diagna Ndiaye, who was elected as the President of Senegal’s Olympic Committee in 2015 won the bid.
In the past 16 years, our grandpa has been unable to amend the NOC’s Constitution.Infact, he has never for once brief his executives about the happenings at the international level.His desperation has made the electoral body put up guidelines that are inconsistent with the Constitution of the NOC.
On the corruption allegation against himself and the ANOCA President, Mustaph Berraf, an Algerian who got off the hook as a result of his connection with power that be in Algeria.At the global level,it took the intervention of the IOC President,Thomas Bach to rescue them.A report published by AIPS Media reads, “October 30, 2019 – The President of the Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), Mustapha Berraf, has escaped the worst in Doha, Qatar. On the sidelines of the XXIV General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), held in the capital of the Gulf nation, in the presence of representatives from 206 countries, ANOCA, as usual, held its own statutory meeting. Except that many African delegates had prepared a motion (of which we have a copy) to withdraw confidence from President Berraf, his General Secretary Ahmed Abu Elgasim Hashim and Treasurer Habu Ahmed Gumel.”
The report reads.
In exposing the deals between them,the report continues,
“In a 15-page document, Mustapha Berraf is being accused of unclear management of ANOCA, lack of proper administration and unilateral and anti-statutory decisions. The document accuses Berraf and his team of “betraying the trust of the NOCs” and “discrediting the organization”. It lists a series of anomalies and reveals an unjustified flow of money from ANOCA… The no-confidence motion could have prevailed over Mustapha Berraf, if not for the intervention of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A few months to a major Olympic event (Tokyo 2020), the IOC doesn’t want disruptions and opts for stability and continuity.”The report says.
The AIPS report explained how Berraf escaped in Algeria,” The Algerian leader, who is also in trouble in his own country after the publication by the press of very damning confidential reports from the General Financial Inspectorate (IGF), and in open conflict with the Minister of Youth and Sports Raouf Salim Bernaoui (a former Olympic athlete and member of the COA Executive Committee), denies all these accusations.
Meanwhile the investigators from the Ministry of Finance have also pointed out a set of irregularities and unjustified flow of funding in US dollars, which Berraf refers to as “false and defamatory attacks aimed at damaging his image and the image of the Algerian Olympic Committee.”
A court decision, which cleared Berraf, has even been transmitted to some media. But for many, this decision and the fact that the IGF Report has been shelved was only possible because of its proximity to the people in power.”The report concludes.
In conclusion,the United Sports Stakeholders USS has refused to gwap at the grandpa,but has advised him to tow the honourable path, because the night is still young for the NOC to be rescued.
