A former Director General of National Sports Commission, Patrick Ekeji, has revealed that the success of the acting DG of the NSC,
Al-Hassan Yakmut lies on the vast knowledge of the Sports Minister she/he is under.
Ekeji stressed that sports in Nigeria has been underdeveloped owing to bad leadership but prayed for a listening minister who will give him as much room to work.
“Yakmut is a professional, and I believe he wants to succeed,” he said. But he can only succeed if he has a minister that listens and understand where the DG is coming from. “One thing I want people to understand is that a DG is not the minister and he can only do so much if the minister allows him.
“The DG cannot take a final policy decision, he can only advice his head which is the minister, and it is now left for the head to take such advice or leave it,” he added. Talking about his experience over the years as an administrator, Ekeji, who was in charge when Nigeria won the All Africa Games for the first time in 2003, said the major challenge of sports development in the country had been leadership.
He said: “I worked with some ministers that are politicians and at the time they came on board, they have already form an impression of those of us that are civil servants in sports and so that distorted their sense of reasoning. “All they do is to start fighting the staff, when there is a good idea from the staff, they don’t accept it and before they know it, it becomes a problem.
“Very soon, we are going to have new set of politicians becoming ministers in various sectors, I dont know who the minister of sports will be, but I just pray he will be someone that will come with an open mind to be able to listen to the professionals.” Three weeks ago, Yakmut was named as a replacement to the former DG, Gbenga Elegbeleye. NewTelegraph
Ekeji stressed that sports in Nigeria has been underdeveloped owing to bad leadership but prayed for a listening minister who will give him as much room to work.
“Yakmut is a professional, and I believe he wants to succeed,” he said. But he can only succeed if he has a minister that listens and understand where the DG is coming from. “One thing I want people to understand is that a DG is not the minister and he can only do so much if the minister allows him.
“The DG cannot take a final policy decision, he can only advice his head which is the minister, and it is now left for the head to take such advice or leave it,” he added. Talking about his experience over the years as an administrator, Ekeji, who was in charge when Nigeria won the All Africa Games for the first time in 2003, said the major challenge of sports development in the country had been leadership.
He said: “I worked with some ministers that are politicians and at the time they came on board, they have already form an impression of those of us that are civil servants in sports and so that distorted their sense of reasoning. “All they do is to start fighting the staff, when there is a good idea from the staff, they don’t accept it and before they know it, it becomes a problem.
“Very soon, we are going to have new set of politicians becoming ministers in various sectors, I dont know who the minister of sports will be, but I just pray he will be someone that will come with an open mind to be able to listen to the professionals.” Three weeks ago, Yakmut was named as a replacement to the former DG, Gbenga Elegbeleye. NewTelegraph
Al-Hassan Yakmut has the expertise to develop sports in Nigeria- Patrick Ekeji
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