Ahead of the forthcoming national Para Sports Federations elections, the Nigeria Association for Physical and Health Education Recreation, Sports and Dance (NAPHER-SD) has been urged to jettison the idea of allocating slots (offices) to zones and allow all interested members from all parts of the country to contest for its reps on the board of Federations.
President, Nigeria Rugby Football Federation, Dr Ademola Are, gave the advice in a chat with LEADERSHIP Sports, insisting that rather than zonal consideration; merit should be adopted in the choice of the NAPHER-SD’s representatives on sports federation boards.
He said NAPHER-SD as a professional body is expected to bring its expertise to bear on all the sports federations and serve as the guiding light in ensuring that sports take its rightful position in the country.
“NAPHERD-SD as a professional body for people that read Physical and Health Education and Dance has been a jolly ride so far, they have been doing very well. However, there have been some observations which I felt we should bring up because you can’t continue doing something the same way and expect to achieve different results.
“What brought this about is the forthcoming National Para-sports Federations elections. We have seven slots as a body and we are expected to bring our professional bearing to all the sports federations which is never in doubt. But when it comes to elections, the excos are in the habit of allocating juicy federations to themselves, barring other members from contesting into those federations, which is unconstitutional and morally wrong.
“Elections are meant to be open to every member that is interested to vie for the positions. The idea of allocating a particular sport to a zone is uncalled for, illegal and undemocratic. I’m appealing to NAPHER_SD executives to change this attitude and channel their energy interfacing with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
“I’m also appealing that they shouldn’t zone para sports federations elections to any zone. We have people in the northwest that are interested in particular sports and those sports have been zoned to the south. We have people in the south as well that are interested in sports that have been zoned to the north.
“Open the elections for everybody to contest even if it is only one federation. Allocating offices to exco members is illogical, it is cheating and unconstitutional. NAPHER_SD should retrace its steps.“Restraining members from contesting will limit the quality of people that will represent NAPHER-SD on the board of federations. We want people with value and on merit,” Are warned.
Meanwhile, NAPHER-SD president, Prof. Rauf Okuneye, insists the association is considering zoning options to avoid giving undue advantage to any zone.
“The last Federations elections were thrown open, but this time we need to avoid giving advantage to any zone ahead of others.
