‘You can’t be AFN President or Vice President if you are not a member of the Board’: Sportsnow tells Nigerians interested in leadership position in the Federation
Nigerians interested in vying for the leadership positions in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, will have to become members of the Executive Board of the Federation before they can be eligible to contest, reports Sportsnow.com.ng.
A number of aspirants have started to campaign to either become the President or the Vice-Presidents of the Federation relying on the ambiguous article 9.2 of the disputed 2023 Constitution of the AFN (as amended).
The article states that ‘Candidates for the position of AFN President shall be nominated by a state that is in good (financial) standing as member of AFN. The Curriculum Vitae of such candidate shall be enclosed with the nomination form and submitted to the AFN Secretary General as stipulated in the election guidelines and timetable.’
The article did not state that such candidates must have been elected/nominated/selected as members of the Executive Board of the AFN and has erroneously been used by people wishing to be independent candidates, as it were, vying for the highest positions in the Federation.
The 2023 disputed AFN Constitution is clear on the number of Executive Board members the Federation should have and the constituencies they will come from.
Article 6 says there will be six zonal representatives and one from each of the following constituencies: NAPHER.SD, NAWIS, International or Continental Executive arm, Armed Forces, Police and Para-military, Corporate Sponsors/Ex-Officio/Philanthropists, Technical Representative (Coaches and Technical Officials) and the Athlete Representative.
This means the Executive Board will be composed of 13 members with the President and the two vice-presidents elected from the 13 members by the Congress of the AFN.
Article 6 corrects article 8.5, sub-section 1 (8.5.1) of the 2017 Constitution of the Federation which made provision for a 16 member board after throwing the position of the President and the two vice-presidents open.
Article 8.5 of the 2017 Constitution was copied from the Code of Governance midwifed by then Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung which threw the leadership positions open after stating that the AFN Board will have 13 members.
