Athletes puzzled by minister’s choice of Adeleye as technical aide

Technical Director of the Sacked Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Sunday Adeleye. Photo: TWITTER/NIGERIAATHLETICS

The decision by Sports Minister, John Owan Enoh, to appoint former Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Sunday Adeleye, as his executive assistant, seems to be causing disaffection among some top Nigerian athletes.

The Minister announced Adeleye last week as one of his aides. However, some top Nigerian athletes have kicked against Adeleye’s appointment, claiming that he caused so much havoc in the nation’s athletics when he served as AFN’s technical director.

Some of the athletes, who spoke with The Guardian, yesterday, said the minister ought to have looked into Adeleye’s records before appointing him as one of his aides.

“The appointment of Adeleye as executive assistant by the sports minister is a mismatch,” the athlete said angrily. “This same Adeleye was indicted by the report of a review committee set up to investigate Nigeria’s poor performance at Doha 2019 World Athletics Championships. He was sacked as AFN technical director by the immediate past Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, over his alleged gross misconduct. How come this new minister is picking him as his executive assistant? We won’t take this.”

Another athlete said: “I can’t understand the yardstick behind his choice as executive assistant by the new minister. One major problem we have in this country is that many Nigerians forget so easily. I am sure the sports minister did not follow the fiasco at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where 10 Nigerian athletes were declared ineligible to compete by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).

“They athletes were disqualified from the final entries for the Olympics for failing to meet