Governing Bodies
NIGERIA’S SPORTS MINISTRY INAUGURATES BOARD OF COMMONWEALTH YOUTH PROGRAMME
BY HASIYA HARUNA
Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has inaugurated members of the Board of Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) University of Abuja.
Dare remarked that the occasion was very important to the ministry in various ways mainly because it showed commitment and resolve of government to improve institutional capacity to deliver on its mandate in ensuring competency and well-trained workforce within the youth sector.
He further said the constitution of the Board of Directors is a key component of the CYP programme which is very necessary in the selection of capable men and women who will be inaugurated and who would in turn set out the overall strategic direction for the operation of the CYP for the next four years.
The Minister stated that the CYP diploma in youth Development Distance Learning programme took off in Nigeria in 2006 with agreement and memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on the 18th May, 2005 between the CYP Secretariat Zambia, the Federal Government of Nigeria and Abuja.
Dare said, despite some hitches associated with the operation of the CYP programme, many youth workers and young Nigerians were trained and certified capable of doing youth work by being awarded the relevant diploma certificates.
He said, though the programme could not operate optimally since 2011 due partly to the dwindling financial resources in the Ministry and more recently because of the new directives from the National University Commission (NUC), that Nigerian Universities should stop running diploma programmes.
To this end, Dare said he wished to state the need to sustain the specialized platform for capacity building in youth work as was considered appropriate to work out the programme to Post- Graduate degree Award level.
The Minister seized the opportunity to congratulate the members on their well-deserved appointment and enjoin them to use their best endeavors to justify the confidence reposed in them while he declared the reconstituted Board of the CYP Center reconstituted.
In attendance is the representative of the Vice Chancellor University of Abuja, Prof. Gadzama Amos Ali; Director of the Education and Youth Dev. Sept in the Ministry, Mr. Ede Ogaba and Prof. Ochili Ekundayo.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Olusade Adesola, represented by Edeh Ogaba remarked that the occasion is important to the Ministry because capacity Development of youth workers and youth practitioners across the country is cardinal in delivery of quality youth work services.
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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