Guidelines released by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development on Friday barred persons under 25 years of age or more than 80 years from contesting in sports federations polls holding Thursday September 30, hopefully in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
However, there is an exception.
Athlete representatives who may be below 25 but not less than 18 years of age, as at the time of election may contest if they fulfil additional conditions.
Athletes’ representative shall in addition be active athlete or must have retired from active sports not earlier than 2017 and must have represented Nigeria in at least 2 major international competitions with no drug related infraction.
The Election Guidelines also spelt out the composition of the Board, Eligibility, Electoral Committees, Election Regulations, Elections Petition Committee, Electoral Appeals Committee, Inauguration, among others.
The National Sports Federations will conduct the elections and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) will monitor the polls.
According to the Guidelines, each Board shall comprise the President, 1 Vice President, 11 other members and a Secretary-General as prescribed in the Code of Governance.
The board shall comprise members from each of the country’s 6 zones, One (1) Athletes’ Representative of the Sport; One (1) Institutional Sports Representative; Representative of International Sports body of the Sport; Representative of the National Association of Women in Sports (NAWIS); One (1) Representative of the National Association of Physical, Health Education, Recreation, Sports and Dance (NAPHER-SD); One (1) Philanthropist or an Ex-officio member as well as a Representative of Coach and Officiating official (Technical Bodies of the Sport)
The Guidelines pegged the West African School Certificate (WASC) or its equivalent as the minimum qualification to contest.
It stated further that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is to set up an electoral committee to monitor and supervise the National Sports Federations elections while the Zonal Co-ordinator of the Ministry shall conduct Zonal elections which shall be done by secret ballot with the result announced immediately after the conclusion of the elections by the Chairman of the Electoral Committee.
The Guidelines also contain provisions for petitions, appeals, 2021 National Sports Federations elections timelines as well as National Sports Federations Code of Governance and also noted that all electoral boards of the National Sports Federation are to be inaugurated by the Honourable Minister of Youths and Sports Development, at a date convenient for him but not later than 4 weeks from the conclusion of election.
