Sadiq Abdullahi knocks national retreat on sports

In a statement made available to Feverpitch, the Olympian said since there was no agenda prior to the retreat, it failed to achieve its purpose as he maintained that most of what happened was blame trading and pointing of accusing fingers. He also said majority of those who were invited to the retreat had no […]

In a statement made available to Feverpitch, the Olympian said since there was no agenda prior to the retreat, it failed to achieve its purpose as he maintained that most of what happened was blame trading and pointing of accusing fingers.

He also said majority of those who were invited to the retreat had no business being at the sports gathering because they had nothing meaningful to contribute.

According to him, even the foreigners who were invited to the retreat only spoke on what worked for them in transformation without taking into consideration the peculiarities of Nigerian sports.

“Although, His Excellency noted brainstorming as the focus of the retreat but to heed towards such aim, there should have been an agenda prior to the gathering, demanding invitees to bring along their views in particular areas.

“It did turnout majority of those invitees were open or closet politicians of a political party along with few foreigners”, he said.

Sadiq therefore said instead of inviting everybody and achieving nothing tangible, the organizers should have focused on knowledgeable and credible parties in particular areas as policy / procedure, facilities management, technical (particular sport), athletes’ management, physiotherapists, accounting and budgeting.

“Invitations should have been extended to credible parties’ in particular areas such as policy / procedure, facilities management, technical (particular sport), athletes’ management, physiotherapists, accounting / budgeting, etc.

“Those individuals should have been required to prepare and ready to submit their thoughts among their peers (others invited) and discuss its’ merits”.

Sadiq reiterated that invitees should have been grouped according to their areas of specialization and tasked to come up with workable suggestions on the way forward.