By Daily Sports on February 3, 2017

Ex-Olympian Jeremiah Okorodudu, has come hard on the members of the board of the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF), heaping the blame of the poor state of boxing in the country on their door step.

According to him, except for the President of the Board of the NBF, General Kenneth Minimah (retd.), every other member of the federation is looking for what he or she will takes out of the system instead of what they can contribute to the system which was why they were elected into the board.

He said there was no way the sport can develop with this attitude of the members of the NBF because the essence of their membership of the Federation is to ensure that they contribute in their own way to ensure that the sport is moved forward but that is not what they are doing at the moment.

The former national champion stated this in an exclusive interview with Daily Sports at the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos.

The Delta State-born former boxer turned coach is of the view that with this attitude of the board members of the NBF, there is no way the sport could make any progress. He alleged that they have failed to sponsor any championship since being elected into the board of the Federation.

“I think the poor state of boxing in the country should be blamed on the negative attitude of the members of the Board of the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF). I am putting the blame on them because they have failed in the responsibility to the Federation,” Okorodudu stated.

“All the board members except the President are looking for what to take out of the system instead of what to bring or contribute to the system which was why they were elected into the board in the first place.

“I will continue to blame them because boxing cannot make the desired progress with this their attitude. It is unbelievable that when a meeting is convened, they will all come and it is the President that will take care of them by putting them in hotels and at the end of the day, the President of the Federation will still take care of their transportation. Now tell me, is it the way it supposed to be? Okorodudu queried.

“As we speak, none of them has ever sponsored any boxing championship that I know. They can’t even talk to their friends to sponsor championship for the boxers. So, what are their contributions to the development of the sport in the country?

“It does not take much to sponsor any championship and yet, they have not been able to sponsor championships for our boxers. They can sponsor either state, regional or national championships collectively or individually.

“Look, staging a boxing championship is not rocket science, if they don’t have money to stage big championships like regional or national championships, why can’t they sponsor the one they can afford?

“Moreover, what does it take? They can contribute N500,000 each to stage a championship. They are 16 in number and N500,000 into 16 places will give you N8 million. It is enough to stage a championship, yet they are not doing anything,” Okorodudu explained.

Continuing, the Delta State born former national boxing champion said it was high time the government removed those member who have shown that they have nothing to offer to the development of the sport in the country from the board of NBF.

•Ex-Olympian Jeremiah Okorodudu.

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 3, 2017

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