22nd December, 2010
By Adebobola Alawode
As the Federal Executive Council, FEC meets today at the Aso Rock Abuja, the Minister for Sports and Chairman National Sports Commission, NSC, Kwara State-born Ibrahim Bio will hit the venue with his letter of resignation from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet to return to his first love: politics.
The former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly on Monday declared his ambition to contest as governor of the state of his birth.
With his intent to contest as the number one citizen of his state and with his resignation from the cabinet the next thing on the agenda would be, who succeeds him as Nigeria’s Sports Minister?
The questions now on the lips of sports enthusiasts are; will President Jonathan appoint another minister with just three months to next year’s general election or will Nigerians be fed with another grey horn? Will the new sports minister be a minister of football as the country witnessed in the past?
Bio, who succeeded Eng. Sanni Ndanusa, recorded some achievements and was also enmeshed in some controversies like the impasse that engulfed the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, during their election in August. However, his successor will have to be up and doing to either equal or surpass his predecessor.
As the post becomes vacant from today, sports enthusiasts have been commenting over who should be named as Bio’s successor. First to comment was elder sports critic, Martins Osaile. Osaile, who is known within the sports arena as “Nigeria’s Don King†in a chat with Brila f.m. advised President Jonathan not to appoint a new sports minister. He said the timeframe between Bio’s resignation and next year’s election is too short.
He counselled the president to take a cue from what former President Olusegun Obasanjo did before his re-election. The former boxing promoter said that instead of appointing a new sports minister, he should appoint a Permanent Secretary prior to next year’s election.
Another sports enthusiast and CEO of Miracle Beach Sports Club, Oladele Pius, is of the view that it doesn’t matter when a new minister is appointed, but he should be someone who is grounded when it comes to sports administration.
“We don’t want somebody who would channel all our resources to football while other sports will suffer. We want a complete sports administrator who can help develop our sports generally,†he said.
