John Enoh says a state of emergency should be declared for sports development in Nigeria.
As the abysmal performance of Team Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics continues to raise dust, Minister of Sports Development John Enoh says the different sporting federations in the country need comprehensive reforms for efficient sports development.
The minister, who apologised to Nigerians over the poor outing in Paris, indicted the leadership of sporting federations for the lacklustre performance, emphasising the need for systems and structures at the federations to get the best athletes to represent Nigeria and get the desired medals in the next games.
“I’ve always stated that we need to reform our federations,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
“I am also glad that these discussions are going on now. And I need this discussion to continue. Let it not be limited to the reaction because we didn’t get a medal.
“Let it go further in terms of finding out which of those federations is holding the country to ransom when the ministry starts its move to want to reform, which of those federations wants to become an obstacle to that reform?”
He said the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) was dead when he assumed office in August 2023, and that none of the sporting federations have well-equipped training centres.
He agreed that a state of emergency should be declared for sports development.
The minister admitted his limitation and that he had no powers to change weak ones among the federation leaders because they were elected by congresses.
“The leadership of these federations are elected in congresses, and they hold office for four years. Those four years coincide with the four-year Olympic circle,” he said.
