Election annulments: Like NFF, like NOC

For many, this has not come as a surprise because even after the elections were conducted which saw the emergence of former Minister of Sports Engineer Sani Ndanusa as the new president of the committee, there was a huge shadow of doubt as to whether the exercise would go down well with the IOC. The […]

For many, this has not come as a surprise because even after the elections were conducted which saw the emergence of former Minister of Sports Engineer Sani Ndanusa as the new president of the committee, there was a huge shadow of doubt as to whether the exercise would go down well with the IOC.

The election held on September 16 is said to be in contravention  of the directive from the IOC that the exercise should be put on hold pending the out of the case brought before the Court of Arbitration in Sports, CAS, by Mr. Yinka Badare, treasurer of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC.

Badare had gone to the Court challenging the eligibility of some of the aspirants to contest some of the executive positions. As a result, the International Olympics Committee ordered that the elections into the board of the NOC should be shifted pending the out come of the matter brought before the CAS by Badare.

In response, the NOC board of Habu Gumel through the committee’s General Secretary Olabanji Oladapo announced the postponement of the planned Annual General Meeting/Elections into the Executive Committee. The postponement according to the General Secretary was at the instance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) legal department in their letter dated September 9, 2010. “The NOC election scheduled for September 16, 2010 will be postponed until the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) has rendered its decision in the matter.’’

However, the Director General of the NSC, Dr Patrick Ekeji on Tuesday last week said that any further delay in the conduct of the election would not be tolerated.

“The election must go on,” Ekeji said. “The candidates are ready for the election and the letter from CAS does not order any postponement. The letter merely advises the NOC to put its house in order. Why is Gumel (Habu) afraid of election? After eight years in the saddle he should be ready to face any challenge at the poll. Should they postpone the election, then the consequences would be grave.”

The Presidents of Olympics sports also resolved to go ahead with the AGM and the election. One of them who spoke with journalists in Lagos said that NOC is not about Gumel.

“Nobody can stop the election,” he said. “Gumel is not the owner of the NOC so he can’t hold us to ransom. We are ready to go ahead with the AGM and election.”

The first strong signal that the out of last Thursday’s exercise would be an effort in futility was the absence of some of the key members of the Gumel’s board.

When Contacted on why he was absent, the former Secretary General, Oladapo said he did not boycott the election but his absence was in compliance with the directive of the IOC, which had earlier in the week ordered that the poll be postponed.

It is therefore not a surprise that last Friday, the International Olympic Committee, IOC, nullified the election just as it ordered that a fresh poll be held on September 23 under the supervision of  a top official of the IOC, Mr Mustapha Berraf, who is the first Vice-President of the National Olympic Committees of Africa.

The IOC in a letter dated Sept. 17 and sent to the President and Secretary-General of NOC, Habu Gumel and Olabanji Oladapo respectively, said that it “has just been advised about the organization of a meeting on Sept. 16, 2010 in the absence of the  legitimate authorities of the NOC’’.

The IOC said it would not recognize the meeting and the election held during the session.

The letter said: “The IOC and ANOCA do not and will not recognize the meeting held on Sept. 16, 2010 which was not called by the incumbent office bearers and was thus illegally constituted.

“Therefore, we consider the election held on Sept. 16 null and void.’’

The IOC said its decision was based on two fundamental issues bordering on the postponement of the Sept. 16 Elective General Assembly (EGA) was done correctly, following the advice of its legal department.

The letter said the IOC’s Legal Department had advised that no election should take place until the petition before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) was known.

The IOC said the point was clearly stated in the IOC’s last letter to the NOC.

The IOC said that on the receipt of CAS decision, Oladapo immediately called for an EGA scheduled for Sept. 23.

The organization said “we will await the results from the legitimate EGA of NOC, which will hold on Sept. 23, in order to officially recognize the office bearers, who will be elected on that occasion.

“We encourage all members of the General Assembly to take part in this meeting.

“In the meantime, we will advise our partners and stakeholders in the Olympic Movement at large that they should continue to recognize the office bearers, which officially are recognized by the IOC.

“We will keep them informed about the follow-up and the results of the elections on Sept. 23.

“This is particularly important in relation to the future participation of Nigerian athletes in all high level competitions, not least the next Commonwealth Games. ‘’

This is certainly not the best of times for Nigerian sports as few weeks back, elections into the executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, conducted under similar circumstances was promptly nullified by the Lagos High Court with the directive that members of the Alhaji Aminu Maigari led Executive Committee should henceforth stop parading themselves as NFF Executive Committee members.

However, when contacted on the IOC decision to nullify the NOC elections, a member of the newly constituted board of the committee told Trustsports on condition of anonymity that he was aware of the directive from the IOC.

He however said a meeting has been scheduled for Thursday this week for officials of the IOC who observed last Thursday’s election to come and ratify the controversial election.

According to the elected NOC board member, the Nigeria Olympic Committee is an affiliate of the IOC and would never do anything to undermine the powers of the international body.

He said: Thursday, September 23, officials from the IOC who observed the free and fair elections will be in the next General Meeting that we are going to hold in Lagos. It is going to be a fruitful deliberation as we expect the IOC officials to rectify the outcome of the election which they observed”.

Speaking in a similar vein, newly elected president of NOC, Engineer Sani Ndanusa said NOC will never disobey IOC. He said as an affiliate of the international body, the NOC family will this Thursday settle once and for all the lingering crisis in the committee.

He therefore expressed optimism that Nigerian sports will rise again now that he has taken the mantle of leadership as NOC president.  “It is time we move Nigerian sports forward. We can’t continue to waste precious time on issues which will not take us anywhere. I am ready to render selfless service for the good of Nigerian sports”, he assured.

All said and done, if on Thursday, the contending issues in the NOC election are not resolved to the satisfaction of IOC, Nigeria may not be part of the forth coming Commonwealth Games as the latest letter from IOC to NOC is heavy with impending ban.