NFF Lauds NSC For Retreat Programme

The leadership of Nigeria Football Federation has heaped plaudits on the Honourable Minister for Youth Development and Supervising Minister/Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji
Abdullahi, for organizing a one-day retreat for parastatals and sport federations in Abuja on Thursday. The theme of the retreat was Understanding Extant Rules.

NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, who led Members of the NFF Executive Committee to the event, said: “This is a very good programme. It is important to have functions like this periodically so that the Sports Commission and the parastatals and sport federations under it can understand ourselves better.

“The NFF administration is happy with the way and manner the Honourable Minister/Chairman of NSC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has been carrying on, and we will always give him and the NSC Management ample support anytime such is required. This retreat has, no doubt, served a great purpose. There has been light shed on a number of grey areas and I think we all understand that what matters is mutual regard and
respect and for each of the different arms to know its mandate”, said Maigari.

The NFF President attended a programme in Accra, Ghana and only flew into the country on Thursday morning, but was among the first persons at the Conference Hall of the SGF, Federal Secretariat venue of the Retreat.

Honourable Minister/Chairman, NSC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said the one-day retreat was organized in order to consolidate on the gains of recent peace moves and seeming understanding among all sporting bodies and groups in the land. He also reiterated that the parastatals and sport federations have to know their limits of authority and levels of autonomy within the structure.

Mr G. C. Ukomadu delivered a paper on ‘Relationships Between MDAs and Its Parastatals: What The Extant Rules Say’, while Mr. Olalekan Adebola from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation spoke on ‘The Role of MDAs in Ensuring Parastatals Compliance with Extant Rules on Reporting System of Accounts to the AGF’.

At the end, Minister Abdullahi said: “I think this programme has been quite useful. I have always said that among us all, there is nothing personal. We are all doing whatever we are doing in the interest of Nigerian sports and the nation itself. So, if we understand ourselves better, we will be able to relate better and the results would show on the field and elsewhere”.

Also at the Retreat were Chairman of the Sports and Social Development Committee of the House of Representatives, Hon. Godfrey Gaiya, another Member of the Committee Bello Ka’oje, Executive Director of the National Institute for Sports, Dr. Simeon Ikhioya, heads of various sport federations as well as directors and deputy directors of the NSC.