The National Sports Commission (NSC) has been commended by the founder of Ekus Judo Club Benin, Eke Osahon, for dissolving the Musa Oshodi-led board of the Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF), describing the move as a bold step towards restoring sanity to the sport. Osahon said the NSC’s decision was in the best interests of Nigerian judo and would help reposition both the sport and its federation.
However, he urged the commission to go a step further by supervising a comprehensive overhaul of the Nigeria Judo Federation. Such an exercise, he pointed out, should address the bottlenecks created by a constitution allegedly produced and used by some federation officials without the broad approval of the judo community. “We want the Augean stable cleared before another election.
As a stakeholder in judo, I’m happy with the dissolution of the board, and I will be happier if and when the NSC thoroughly looks into the issues that have bedevilled the federation,” the Ekus Judo Club boss said. “The previous board had a self-made or inherited constitution that is fraudulent. It must not be allowed to be used any more.
Any constitution that the Nigeria judo community did not endorse must be thrown out. “We need to purge the federation before elections are held in order to make room for people with integrity to come on board.” Osahon also called for greater consideration of the interests of stakeholders and development partners, particularly Nigerians in the diaspora who sponsor and support judo development in the country.
“Whatever we are doing, we should consider the interests of all stakeholders, particularly the major development partners, diaspora sponsors and supporters. We don’t want anything that will make our development partners and sponsors withdraw their support,” he said.