By Daily Sports on March 12, 2016

Without much ado, the Federal Government has removed Alhaji Alhassan Yakmut, hitherto Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC). The former NSC DG was been posted out to the Ministry of Niger Delta as Director General of Special Duties while he was in far away Brazil as part of the ministerial delegation that inspected the Games Village and other relevant facilities that would be used by Team Nigeria during the 2016 Olympics in Rio in August.

Yakmut was appointed DG of the NSC in the twilight of the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. His first major assignment after his appointment was the All Africa Games in Congo where it is said his organisational ability ensured Team Nigeria placed second behind perennial winners, Egypt.

The eventual removal of Yakmut started like a mere speculation but took a serious dimension when a ministerial committee was set up to harmonise the departments in the ministry. When it was reported that the committee had recommended the scrapping of the sports commission, sports stakeholders immediately expressed their concerns over such recommendation.

They argued that under the same ministry, there is the National Youth Service Corps with its own Director General. For such people there was no need for anyone to contemplate scrapping the NSC which is a professional body presided over by technocrats.

However, the more they expressed their resentment, the more the talks about scrapping the NSC continued until this week when their worst fears were confirmed with the removal of the DG, a development that has left the fate of the NSC handing in the balance.

As things stand, it is the ministry that is going to preside over Team Nigeria’s preparation and participation in the 2016 Olympics. And this is the crux of the matter as most Nigerians are of the opinion that the Minister and the Permanent Secretary who are the principal actors in the ministry lack the capacity to do the job.

•Adapted from a Daily Trust report. Photo shows ex-NSC DG, Alhassan Yakmut.

Source Daily Sports

Posted March 12, 2016

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