By Ben Efe 10-6-2025
Athletics officials are hopeful that the deadlocked primary election of the Coaches/Technical Officials’ rep on the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria would be resolved by the National Sports Commission Wednesday in Abuja, when the contestants and their supporters regroup to have another go at it.
This was after coaches’ representative Solomon Aliyu and technical officials’ Lucas Ogunjimi, in two polling remain neck and neck for who becomes the voice of coaches and technical officials on the board of the AFN.
However, former national hammer throw champion and the Nigeria Coaches Association president, Gabriel Opuana has called on the NSC to separate the two bodies, according to him, there was no justification in the first place to lump them together.
“These are two different bodies with two different athletics functions, I do not think it is fair to have them together on the board of the AFN or any other federation. It is just like having NAWIS and Nigeria Armed Forces lumped together.
“The only way out is for the NSC to come out with an amicable resolution and also probably extend the number of board members so that both bodies can independently be represented. This development has already generated a lot of tension between coaches and technical officials.”
The coaches/technical officials rep is the only primary election yet to be resolved in the building up to the AFN election billed for June 12, 2025. Though there are speculations that the exercise might be shifted to another date, candidates are poised for the election which is already generating a lot of interest following the highwire politicking.
“We can only expect a brighter future for athletics,” added Opuana
“Hopefully all the crisis that bedeviled the federation for many years would be a thing of the past and athletes, coaches and administrators can focus on producing results for Nigeria.”
