ABUJA – Timothy Nsirim, the President, Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF) said on Monday that peace had returned to the federation after the National Sports Commission (NSC) intervened in its leadership crisis.
Nsirim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the federation was now working toward hosting its National Open Judo Championship scheduled for Benin.
“Judo is moving on to Benin in no distant time; the secretariat will announce to all the states and they will be in Benin between Aug. 6 and Aug. 8.
“We have discussed very well with the commission; I think there is more peace. Sometimes when there is no quarrel, there will be no peace but we have reunited, there is no problem in the federation
“The federation remains one; we don’t have two federations; maybe you heard it before; the federation remains one and I am the president of the federation,“ Nsirim said. [eap_ad_2] Musa Oshodi, the Vice-President of the federation, commended NSC for the efforts it had made toward resolving the leadership crisis in the federation.
He said that it was a thing of concern that professionalism had not been introduced in judo.
Oshodi said that judo’s dwindling fortunes in recent time could be traced to lack of professionalism in the federation.
“We have been having this problem because those that have been our presidents in the past are not Judokas and you cannot feel the pains where it matters most if you are not in the system.
“For example, we have missed three Olympic qualifiers; if care is not taken, by the end of this year we will have lost good chances of qualifying for the Olympics.
“But if you are a practitioner and you understand this, you will not allow that to happen,“ Oshodi said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that some board members of NJF had removed Nsirim as President and replaced him with Oshodi at a meeting held in Lagos.
The members had accused him of ineptitude and financial recklessness, but NSC on July 18 recommended that the status quo be maintained, while it (NSC) worked to achieve genuine reconciliation. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]