By Monica Iheakam
Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has pegged June 30 , 2018 as the deadline for all national Federations to conclude reviews and status as approved by their international federations, with ratified copies submitted to the NOC.
This directive was part of the resolutions reached at the end of their Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja Lagos on Tuesday December 19, 2017.
The Olympic Family in their Communique, expressed deep thanks and appreciation to the Grand Patron of the Nigeria Olympic Movement, Mr. President, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR for his commitment to sports development in the country.
The NOC promised to continue to reinforce its collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports on matters of sport development in Nigeria.
It was also resolved that National Federations have a responsibility to commence immediate review and approval of their respective Constitution and Statutes in line with their International Federation rules and guidelines.
The NOC agreed that Nigerians aspiring for positions in International Federation and Confederation boards should be encouraged by all means as they play very important roles in the delivery of results by athletes in the sports field. As a result, the “pull-him-down” syndrome, where current Federation officials constitute barriers to election or re-election of eligible Nigerians should be discouraged.
It was observed that corporate bodies in Nigeria are not committed enough to supporting sports and appeals to corporate Nigeria – multinationals and philanthropists to lend their commit their resources in support of sports as Government cannot do it alone.
The Olympic family urged all stakeholders to strive to ensure that Nigerian athletes excel at various upcoming international multi-sport games, such as the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Africa Youth Games in Algiers, Algeria in 2018, the Winter Olympic Games (Bobsled) in Korea 2018, the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 2019 All Africa Games and theTokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.