Posted by Obafemi Obadare on
Reactions flowed on Wednesday in the Nigerian sports community after President Olusegun Obasanjo redeployed Col Musa Mohammed from the Sports Ministry and replaced him with Ambassador Sama'ila Sambawa.
Reactions flowed on Wednesday in the Nigerian sports community after President Olusegun Obasanjo redeployed Col Musa Mohammed from the Sports Ministry and replaced him with Ambassador Sama'ila Sambawa.
A former Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Mr Fabio Olanipekun, hailed the President for showing Mohammed the way out of the ministry, while Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi, who was a victim of the minister's perceived high-handedness, kept a sealed lip over the development.
To Olanipekun, the minister's exit was long overdue. 'Halleluiah," Olanipekun, a former Nigeria Television Authority Sports Manager, said repeatedly in a telephone interview. 'Praise the Lord."
Asked why he was exultant, Olanipekun said: 'He (Mohammed) was the most retrogressive Sports Minister I've ever come across in my life. It is a great relief that the President has taken him out.
'I thank President Obasanjo for removing him. He did a lot of damage to our sports. He sacked (Patrick) Ekeji, who was doing a great job in the ministry, cleaning up the 10 years of rot engineered by Dr Amos Adamu.
'He put a spanner in the works of the National Sports Commission, an organisation that could have revived sports in the country."
Olanipekun continued: 'He destroyed the Nigeria Football Association by discrediting Ogunjobi. His tenure was that of chaos. It was a disaster."
But he advised the President, saying, 'He should put somebody who is tested in sports administration in charge this time."
Ogunjobi, who was removed by the minister in controversial circumstances last January, refused to speak on the minister's exit. 'No comments," Ogunjobi said on telephone from his Ibadan base.
The Punch, Thursday, July 14, 2005