Sports Minister disqualified from Nigeria Olympic Committee election

The tussle for supremacy between the Nigeria Olympic Committee, (NOC) headed by Habu Gumel and the National Sport Commission took a dramatic turn yesterday with the disqualification of Sani Ndanusa, Minister of Sports and Chairman of National Sports Commission from participating in the NOC election, which is to be held on December 9 in Dutse, Jigawa State.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting of the executive committee of the body held at the NOC boardroom within the National Stadium in Lagos, Tony Nezianya, its Public Relations Officer, who quoted article 26:1:2, said Ndanusa was not qualified to stand for election as president of the NOC because he did not meet the requirements as prescribed by the law governing the election,

"For the post of President, the candidate must have served in an executive position or at the level of a commission of an international federation, continental federation or the CGS for a period of at least four years.

"The world is a global village and information gathering has become a simple task. Sani Ndanusa was elected as the 1st Vice President of Confederation of African Tennis only on the 20th of June 2007 at Hotel El Mouradi Gammorcrth, Tunis, Tunisia and does not meet the mandatory four years required," Nezianya said.

Gumel unchallenged

In addition to disqualifying the sports minister, the NOC also suspended the board of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) from Nigeria Olympic Committee activities, noting that Ndanusa was not present on the day he was elected president of the NTF, a development that contravenes article 6.1.2 of national federations' elections guidelines, which stipulates that all candidates must appear in person.

Nezianya said:

"The ‘elected' president of Tennis Federation, Sani Ndanusa was not present at the venue of the election,

and yet was deemed elected while Raymond Dokpesi was disqualified from weightlifting federation for the same reason of not being present at the venue of the election."

As Ndanusa's disqualification paved the way for Habu Gumel to return as president of the Olympic committee given that the sports minister was his only opponent, it is not clear yet what Ndanusa's response to this latest twist in the power play between him and Gumel would be.

Attempts to get his side of the story failed as he refused to pick up his calls.

Kangaroo meeting

In another twist to the whole saga, the NOC Deputy Secretary General, Bappa Aliyu Misau who was also disqualified from contesting as Treasurer because "he is co-opted into the Hockey Federation for the purpose of the election" described the NOC executive meeting as a Kangaroo one:

"These people are people with vested interest; shifting the goal post when a goal is about to be scored."

He went on to say that Ndanusa qualified to contest because he had been a member of the African Tennis Commission since 2000 till date.

"They said they did not see the attachment of the letter that he had been in the commission for eight years; if they can go and confirm that he is indeed President of CAT, why can't they browse the Internet and confirm this too? They just don't want anybody to contest against Gumel and we are going to fight this till the end," said Misau who threatened to get an interlocutory injunction to stop the election.