The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has strengthened its Executive Board following the successful completion of the South East and North West zonal elections on Wednesday at the Media Centre of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

Overseen by Honourable Bukola Olopade, Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), the elections saw Mr. Festus Okorie secure the South East ticket with a unanimous 4–0 vote, while Abubakar Ladan Zurmi clinched the North West position with a convincing 5–1 victory over Honourable Sunday Adeleye of Kaduna State.

Speaking after the elections, the Director General of the NSC, Honourable Bukola Olopade, commended the process for its transparency and credibility.

“Athletics is one of our major sports, and it is therefore very important to get it right with the election processes because that will be the foundation of everything that will be achieved in the next four years,” he stated.

“The success of the Commission is tied to how well our federations perform, as it is through them that we are implementing the Renewed Hope Sports Mandate that Mr. President has entrusted to us. The AFN is one federation we cannot afford toy with.”

He further urged unity and collaboration within the athletics community.

“We know everybody cannot be on the board at the same time, but we all belong to the same sports family, working for the overall interest of Nigerian sports. We therefore appeal to every stakeholder to seek peace and reconciliation at all times, to de-escalate tensions—especially concerning election matters,” he concluded.

The National Association of Women in Sports ( NAWIS ) has commended the Leadership role of the National Sports Commission, NSC, following the election of Ex Nigerian athlete, Fatima Yusuf- Olukoju as NAWIS representative into the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN.

After the conduct of the NAWIS election that took place in Abuja on Monday, the Director General of the NSC, Hon. Bukola Olopade, held a reconciliatory meeting with the Association and the principal contestants in the polls, Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju and veteran Sports journalist Nneka Anibeze to iron out grey areas that must have arisen from the outcome of the elections.

The election conducted by NAWIS saw Yusuf-Olukoju beating Anibeze in the polls but both have now decided to forge a common front and work together for the overall interest of the Girl Child and Women empowerment in Nigerian Sports.

A delighted Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju said after the meeting, that she is overwhelmed with the kind of detailed attention the current NSC leadership is giving to Nigerian Sports  and NAWIS is very proud with the current re-engineering going on Nigerian Sports.

” The DG is one person that can bring everybody to one table and make us talk which is what we need in our sports so Nigerian sports is proud to have someone like him and the Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko leading our Sports”.

We are all family and as family people do fight but the goal is to amend and move on because we all have one common goal which is to see that the AFN succeeds”.

” No hard feelings between me and Nneka because I won the NAWIS race. She loves athletics and has been with athletics for a very long time. She even covered me as an athlete so I consider her as an ambassador of AFN.We will team up together and move the federation forward”, she concluded.

Nneka Anibeze on her part also praised the role the Director General of the NSC played for  post-election tensions not to escalate.

” I thank the DG for coming in and brokering peace because it actually would not have gone well. He called myself and everyone, and we have all agreed to accept Fatima.

She is an icon of athletics and Someone who also has her plans for women and girls which is similar to what I had plans for. We also share the same passion and with the help of the DG, we have now agreed to work together for the same goal and believe better things are ahead”.

Over 500 students from schools across the 57 local government and local council development area of lagos State participated in a one day United athletics series 

The series put together by Culture Rush  in collaboration with school Games , LASUBEB and the lagos State sports commission was to discover talents in the track and field event for both lagos State and the country at large 

The series which took place at the sports Center of the University of Lagos saw participants compete in 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 4×400 meters relay and long jump in the boys and girls category

Organiser of the championship

Adeyemi Egbeoluwa says the decision to embark on the event was for early discovery of talents at the grassroots level who would be nurtured to take over from the ageing ones even as he commended the Lagos State Sports Commission and the State’s Universal  Basic Education Board ( SUBEB) for their support.

He explained that there’s  plan to have an U-14, U-15 and U-16 categories and to also  establish an academy where the selected children will be camped and trained to become world  beaters in athletics.

He expressed happiness with the spirit of sportsmanship and enthusiasm expressed by the children even as he promised to leverage on the successes recorded to move athletics forward at the grassroots level.

My decision to organise the championship is based on the fact that we pay attention to athletes in secondary schools institutions of Higher Learning while in the actual fact we are suppose to start from the primary schools in order to correct the link and discover these athletes early enough to nurture them to stardom as is done in other climes.

” What you’re witnessing today is the U-13 version because we want to catch them very early. We also plan to have an U-14, U-15 and U-16 series and there’s no going back on our plan to make Lagos State the hub of athletics not only in Nigeria but the entire West African sub- region”, he stressed 

In her remark, Director School Sports Lagos State Dr. Mrs Oluyomi Oluwasanmi said the championship is in line with the state’s plan of ensuring that students combine education with sports , promising  that it will be sustained as it will lead to further grassroots sports development in the state.

Education Secretary of Lagos Island Local Government Area, Tijani Tajudeen as well as a board member of Lagos State Universal Education Board, Hon, Babatunde Adewale Jimoh in their separate remarks described the championship as a good initiative capable of helping in the development of athletics at the grassroots level , noting that they will continue to support it 

Some of the children  commended the organiser for the noble initiative which they said gave them opportunity to compete with other students from all parts of the state with an appeal  to make it an annual event 

At the end of the day, certificates and medals were awarded to the winners