Posted by By John Egbokahn on
AS the news of the removal of Col. Musa Mohammed as Sports Minister circulated like a wildfire, sports stakeholders, agreed in unison that his tenure was fraught with avoidable mistakes, decline in our athletes' performance and a general lull in the nation's sports arena.
AS the news of the removal of Col. Musa Mohammed as Sports Minister circulated like a wildfire, sports stakeholders, agreed in unison that his tenure was fraught with avoidable mistakes, decline in our athletes' performance and a general lull in the nation's sports arena.
Vocal tennis buff and former sponsor of tennis players in Nigeria, Chief Ben Eziebe has described the removal of the Minister of Sports, Col Musa Mohammed (rtd) from his duty post as "good riddance to bad rubbish".
The Publicist of the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFO) Ben Ekpo also hailed the removal of the Sports Minister, Col Musa Mohammed (rtd) from his duty post.
Chief Ezeibe, arguably, one of the fiercest critics of Mohammed, who he severally called to resign months back, when it was clear that the latter was sailing our sports into murky waters, said the move of President Olusegun Obasanjo to axe the Minister should have come much more longer than it came.
"The man had no business being there since inception because despite confessing that he knew next to nothing about sports, he later failed to heed wise counsel on the way to run our sports. Mohammed showed the whole world, his naivety in sports administration because during his term, nothing went right for Nigeria and we all saw how he led Nigeria to total failure at the last Olympics in Athens.
Commenting on Mohammed's impact in his constituency, tennis, the ace tennis analyst said that "during his tenure, our players failed to gather ATP points because the government did not provide them with the enabling environment to thrive. It is also on record that his administration placed little or no attention to a viable sports like tennis and that largely accounts for why our players are still amateurish in their play of the game".
Chief Ezeibe tasked the successor of Mohammed's hot seat, to learn from the avoidable pitfalls of the latter, in order to positively impact the growth of sports in the country.
"We do not need another novice or someone who shuns wise counsels because of the terrible legacies left by Mhammed", said Chief Ezeibe.
Ekpo on his part said that "Mohammed's removal is a move in the right direction because the man showed that he had no business being our sports minister. The man, even confessed to all that he was dabbling into a completely knew terrain when he was appointed. He did not know anything about sports development and administration and that largely showed why our sports declined significantly during his term", said Ekpo, who went on to reel out the catalogue of woes that befell Nigeria during Mohammed's tenure.
"It was during his term that our athletes failed dismally at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. It was also during his term that we were exposed to FIFA's ridicule when Mohammed, unilaterally sacked heads of departments of the NFA.
Commenting on how Mohammed failed to impact youth sports development in the country, Ekpo said that "he failed completely in that aspect, because little or no attention was placed on the sustainable development of youths from the grassroots.
"If I should score him on that aspect, his grade would be zero. How can you explain a situation where we did not receive any subvention from the government, even when we are affiliated to government and act as partners in progress", Ekpo wondered aloud over the telephone line in Lagos.