A Yoruba group, the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum has called on  President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure continuity in the administration of sports in the country so that promises made to Nigerians could be fulfilled in good measure and time.

JONATHAN

The group, writing through its Secretary General, Akin Malaolu, said that the reason for asking President Jonathan to show more than passable interest in the country’s sports is the inability of past sports administrators in understanding of rules or proper preparation of athletes for competitions.

Stressing that sports officials in the past got “carried away by illusions and vague conceptions drawn from hurried conclusions in rudiments of sports administration”, the group said that wrong judgments have “only brought shame, defeat and scorn on the nation as recently experienced through unrepentant Dr. Amos Adamu.”

As a result therefore, the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum wants President Jonathan to retain the current Director General of the National Sports Commission, NSC, Dr. Patrick Ekeji, who it said “has positively made bold moves to correct the ills of the past and move sports forward.”

According to the group, “We have noticed his (Ekeji)  pragmatic and sincere approach to sporting issues and programmes geared toward the welfare of athletes generally and with a desire to do more so that the glory we sought for our youths can be attained.”

Dr Ekeji first succeeded Dr Adamu as director of sports development during which Nigeria hosted the All Africa Games in 2003 and came tops for the first time in the history of the continental competition. He also succeeded Dr Adamu as the Director General when he (Adamu) was redeployed to the ministry of Special Duties on the orders of late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in 2009.