August 06, (THEWILL) – The dust disturbed by the furore that followed the viral video of shot put finalist Chukwuebuka Enekwechi laundering his own jersey ahead of his event’s final of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is yet to settle and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has issued a statement of self exoneration, placing the blame squarely on the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
As THEWILL reported, Nigerians reacted to the embarrassing video of Team Nigeria’s medal hopeful Enekwechi, who finished in 12th place in the shot put final, washing the only jersey he was supplied for the tournament the day before his final, by piling blames on the Sports Ministry and those in charge of the Nigerian contingent to Tokyo.
The reaction of the Ministry therefore was expected and it came, two days after the video went viral, with the sports administrators passing the buck by declaring that the Ministry was not charged with the responsibility of providing competition jerseys for the country’s athletes because that was a task for governing Federations.
In the statement containing this self exoneration that was signed by Simon Ebohjaiye, the acting Director of the Federations and Elite Athletes Department, the Ministry said: “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has been drawn to the fallacies and inaccurate stories being peddled about in the media space about the kits for Team Nigeria to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and wishes to make the following important clarifications:
“Firstly, when it comes to kits or sports equipment for Team Nigeria, there are two (2) categories: these are General Wears and the Competition Wears.
“The General Wears category is the responsibility of the Ministry. The kitting of Team Nigeria for various National, Continental and International sporting events has always been the responsibility of the Ministry and this was no different for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“For the records, Team Nigeria was properly kitted for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with the Ministry procuring a 9-item bag of kits for each of our athletes and officials.
“The second category of kits is the Competition Wears. This category is the specific competition kits that are peculiar to each sport and provided by the individual Sports Federation.
“The Ministry provides financial support to each Sports Federation as required. It is, therefore, the responsibility of each National Sports Federation to provide these competition Wears to their team athletes and officials.
“For the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, each of the Sports Federations procured the Competition Wears for their respective teams, in relation to their specific needs.
“Furthermore, in providing General Wears for Team Nigeria, the Ministry leveraged on the Local Content Policy of the Federal Government in looking inwards to engaging an indigenous company, AFA Sports, to produce the general kits.”
As justifiable a claim as the Ministry has made with the distinction that they followed for the kits both General and Competition, the task of governance places the Federation directly under the Ministry in respect of oversight functions and general supervision, beyond simply providing the financial wherewithal for the execution of their responsibilities.
Therefore, THEWILL holds that it is not enough for the Ministry to believe that making a distinction between what behoves of it and what does not carries enough justification to remove it from the responsibility to make sure every federating Board under its jurisdiction is not only living up to its roles but is seen to be doing so.
This was displayed properly when, in May, the Ministry, exercising its oversight responsibility over the sporting federations in the country, ordered the dissolution of the boards of all 31 sporting federations in the country. Even though some kicked against it believing that their full tenures had not run their course, no one questioned the constitutionality of the move because the Ministry had that power.
If that is so, THEWILL considers it disappointing to witness this irresponsible act of blame-shifting when courageous actions are expected.
Rather than attempt to self-distance from the ingratiating embarrassment, the Ministry ought to find out exactly why the Federation failed in its responsibilities, who was to blame for the failure, recommend the appropriate disciplinary measures according to the statutes while putting in place measures and structures to avoid a thing like this recurring in future.
That is the standard practice in governance and THEWILL expects no less from the Sports Ministry and definitely not the feeble statement it released.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
