Governing Bodies
NIGERIA’S YOUTH & SPORTS MINISTRY FORGES WORKING PARTNERSHIP WITH NESTLE
The Nigerian Ministry of Youth and Sports has reiterated its dogged commitment to its deliberate policies and initiatives to enhance the employability and digital skills of the youths, improve and deepen their entrepreneurial capacity in line with the UN agenda for sustainable development by 2030.
To this end, the Ministry and Nestle Inc. shared similar values in youth and sports development that can be reinforced and implemented to achieve a productive economy.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare stated this when he received in audience the management of Nestle Inc. in his office today at the Federal Secretariat.
In the course of commending Nestle Inc. for its level of achievements and commitment to improving the skills and employability of Nigerian youths, as well grassroots sports; the Minister, Dare explained that the Ministry since his assumption of office, has accorded and prioritized youth and sports on an even keel of development to achieve national unity and economic prosperity for the youths.
To this end, he disclosed that grassroots sports development is one of the pillars in which the Ministry will use to sustain its drive of nurturing budding talents for our national teams through the reactivation of primary schools football competition and principals cup like Nestle Milo corporate sponsorships of basketball competition initiative.
Furthermore, the Minister stated that the D.E.E.L programme of the Ministry is another proactive strategy, to expose our youths to Digital skills acquisition, entrepreneurship and employability.
While stressing that it is an umbrella programme covering other lofty initiatives of the Ministry like the Work Experience Programme (W.E.P) and DY.ng. The Minister emphasized that both programmes are meant to expose the youths to skills and practical experience that would make them employable.
Expatiating, Mr Dare said that similarly, sports has received prompt attention and positive turnaround with novel initiative of adoption campaign, adding, corporate organizations and philanthropists have keyed into it, and adopted several athletes.
This strategy, he noted, will sharpen the skills of our athletes for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Minister seized the opportunity of the visit by Nestle Inc. to beckon that it should identify its area of interest to partner with the Government on youth and sports .
In her remarks, the leader of Nestlé Inc., Mrs. Victoria Uwadoka stated that the company has a flourishing corporate strategy/objective of improving grassroots sports development and youth empowerment programme through its technical training schools for industrialization.
Uwadoka averred that these outlined values endeared Nestle Inc. to connect and partner the Ministry.
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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