SPORTS' MINISTER DARE : ARROGANT VIOLATION OF THE RULE OF LAW
Athletics Federation of Nigeria
SPORTS MINISTER DARE: ARROGANT VIOLATION OF THE RULE OF LAW
By Taiwo Ebudola
The Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development (FMYSD) under the leadership of, Sunday Dare, is now a den for the violation of the rule of law and serial disobedience of court orders. How can it be explained that a Minister of the Federal Republic will so obnoxiously continue, in a cavalier manner, flouting the directives of both a High Court and that of a subsequent Court of Appeal regarding a suit in which the Minister is scandalously involved.
The Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, had for ulterior motives collaborated in creating crisis within the duly elected Executive Board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria ( AFN ). Prior to the sinister and artificial crisis in December 2019, Engr. Gusau-led AFN had significantly improved the participation of Nigerian athletes in various international competitions while seeking means to endow the AFN with independent financial capacity.
Engr. Gusau’s Board engaged in commendable endeavors to improve the fortunes of the sport and the well-being of its stakeholders. All the momentum that was engendered by Gusau’s AFN was crudely negated by Sunday Dare’s poisonous manipulation of, and the nefarious meddling in the affairs of the Federation.
In a move that will be indelibly infamous in the annals of Nigeria’s sports history, the Minister sponsored an outrageous unconstitutional gathering of some AFN board members, in December 2019, who allegedly suspended the legitimate AFN President (Engr. Gusau ) . The, Sunday Dare, cabal-like faction also announced the surreptitious emergence and illegal elevation of the 1st Vice-President of the Athletic body, George Olamide, to the presidency of the association, without an election as required by the constitution of the AFN. Equally odious was the decision of the Sports Ministry to label Mr. SY Pepple, who is the legally appointed Director General AFN, as an impostor, impersonator and persona non grata. This is the kind of action in which Minister Dare has invested most of his tenure with the abysmal consequence of no single worthy achievement to the Minister’s credit, since his appointment over one year ago. Things are falling catastrophically apart under Sports Minister Dare.
As a law abiding patriot and a former Federal Legislator, the duly elected President of AFN, Engr. Gusau went to Court to seek judicial resolution, challenging the emergence of the Minister’s incubated AFN faction. Engr. Gusau’s action was predicated on the fact that the then AFN Constitution had no provision for internal crisis resolution mechanism. It is not by any means surprising that Engr. Gusau has been vindicated each and every step of the way because the Minister’s action are so patently and egregiously in violation of the AFN Constitution.
First, there was a July 1st judgment by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja which granted all the prayers requested by Engr. Gusau. The Court expressed disgust at the beastly assault on the norms and constitution of the AFN by the Minister’s faction of the Federation. The Court consequently declared that Engr. Ibrahim Shehu- Gusau was the constitutionally and duly elected President of the AFN adding that all the actions supposedly taken by Minister’s encouraged fraudulent Assembly were illegal , null and void. The Ministry was ordered to immediately desist from hampering the functioning of Gusau as the duly elected President of the AFN. Minister Sunday Dare arrogantly refused to comply with the order of the Court. The Minister did not give an iota of care about the squandering of the time and fortunes of athletes in the country. Sunday Dare, therefore, again committed public resources to advance the private interests of his AFN surrogates and by funding an Appeal against the judgment. The Minister very well knew that the Appeal miserably deficit of any redemptive ground.
Indeed, the first fatal blow to Sunday Dare’s despicable factional suit came on July 29th when the Court of Appeal rightly struck out the Application for Stay of Execution by the Minister, which was intended to sabotage the order full resumption of duty by, Engr. Gusau ,as the legitimate President of AFN. Even with that ruling, the Minister continued with his reckless bureaucratic obstruction of the affairs of the Athletics Federation. Finally the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, has now ruled on the entirety of the Appeal by the Ministry of Sports; the Court unequivocally reaffirmed the findings and the rulings of the Trial Court which unambiguously declared that Engr. Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau was the legitimate President of the AFN.
One would expect, that Minister will immediately at this stage display a sense of responsibility, as someone who genuinely cares, for the rejuvenation of Nigeria’s athletics and the sports sector. Minister Sunday Dare should immediately conform to the various court rulings as well as embracing the spirit of the Rule of Law. It will be irredeemably disgraceful, if Minister Sunday Dare, engages in another round of miserable excuses to cause a stagnating delay in the constitutional resumption of the affairs of the AFN.
It will indeed be historically scandalous if the Minister were to proceed on another precarious fishing expedition in the Supreme Court. It’s time for Sunday Dare to pull the AFN away from the track of disaster for the greater good and enhanced prospect of Nigeria’s athletics and the sports sector in general .
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