Ekeji, Former DG NSC Thumbs up NBBF Kano Election

The former Director General of the defunct Nigeria’s National Sports Commission, NSC, Dr. Patrick Ekeji has declared the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF election which held in Kano on June 12, 2017 as the “authentic”. Sports Village Square recalls that the election took place a day earlier than the general election into various boards of sports federations in Nigeria under the auspices of both the Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Nigerian Ministry of Youth and Sports.
That has led to two boards claiming to govern basketball in Nigeria. No official statement has been issued yet. But reacting to the controversies Ekeji wrote in a popular WhatsApp group platform, ‘Families United by Sports’ that he had followed all arguments with the respect to the NBBF elections. His verdict: “going by best practices, the Kano election is the authentic one.”
To buttress his assertion, the one time Director of Sports Development in the sports ministry argued that the NSC introduced a policy of privatization of sports federations with the aim of making them “cut their teeth towards management Independence devoid of overbearing control by the government.”
Continuing Ekeji said, “Clear cut pathways were defined with strong encouragement for federations to evolve their constitutions. Some federations such as hockey, swimming, NBBF, etc complied. Indeed Hockey and Swimming carried on with their programmes without recourse to the NSC for funds.
After my exit (from the NSC) that policy was thrown out. Going by what I know, it is a disservice to our sports development by government not to encourage independence of sports federations.”