NAN-S-22
Transparency
By Dorcas Jonah
Abuja, April 11, 2017 (NAN) Solomon Dalung, the Minister of Youths and Sports, on Tuesday advised Secretaries of national sports federations to be hardworking and transparent in the discharge of their duties.
Dalung gave the advice in Abuja during the two-day seminar for national sports federations’ secretaries organised by the ministry’s Federations and Elite Athletes Department (FEAD).
“For sports to develop in Nigeria, there must be honesty and accountability in sports management.
“Officials must be hardworking, honest, disciplined, focused and very loyal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Those are universal virtues of successful people. So, if you want to succeed, you must try to imbibe them.
“It is no more going to be business as usual as transparent management of resources must be adhered to.
“All the resources brought into your custody must be managed transparently,’’ he said.
Dalung said appointment of national sports federations’ secretaries would henceforth be dependent on performance.
“Appointment of national sports federations’ secretaries is no more on permanent basis.
“It is going to be based on performance. Your ability to remain in this office is going to be determined by the way you perform.
“And if you are found wanting you will be shown the way out. As you performed and earned your appointment, you must sustain it by performance too,” he said.
The minister said the seminar was to ensure that strong national sports federations were built.
He said very strong and viable national sports federations were the vehicle for sports development.
“The essence of an effective national federation is in its administrative mechanism to organise itself, set the tone of agenda of development for the various federations.
“This is realisable only if and when the administrative mechanic is effective, competent, focused and disciplined to drive the policies and ideals of the administration in sports development.
“The responsibility of the secretary of national sports federations is key because the secretary is the connecting link between the federations and the ministry,” he said.
Earlier, Hauwa Kulu-Akinyemi, the Director of FEAD, had said the seminar was to equip the secretaries to ensure better performance.
“The national sports federations are the hub of the ministry and if we are going to develop sports in our country, we must equip those people who man this important segment of the ministry.
“These secretaries are the first point of interaction with our external public in Nigeria. I believe that our standard in the sports sector is measured by what they do in the federations,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar was attended by all sports federations secretaries, the assistant secretaries and staff of FEAD.(NAN)
DE/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)