The recently elected President of Nigeria Rugby Football Federation, Mr. Kelechi Mbagwu, has revealed that the sport is operating under a big and united family. He tells KENNEDY JAMES in this exclusive interview that the era of confusion is over and that the new board under his leadership is working hard to give rugby development the attention it deserves. Excerpts:
Since after the elections that brought your board into office, what can you say you have achieved?
Since the elections, we have settled into the onerous task of coordinating rugby in Nigeria and building a lasting foundation with remarkably little fuss. Despite the set-back of a suspension imposed by Rugby Afrique, we have embarked on an ambitious plan to build the momentum of the progress of the game right from the onset.
Taking into consideration, our cardinal points of reference, the board has tackled a plethora of early challenges to put us on the path of progress.
Can you throw more light on the activities of your board so far?
Firstly, our activities at this early stage have been impressive. There were three Sevens tournaments used as pre-qualifiers for the annual Independence sevens. The Gossar sevens in Lagos, the Barewa sevens in Kano and the New Northern sevens which held in Zaria. They were well planned and enthusiastically promoted events which made rugby the talk of the town prior to the big one, the ‘Independence Sevens’ which held at the Polo Club in Lagos to overwhelming encomium.
Needless to say it was a runaway success and paved the way for the extremely entertaining Lagos Beach Rugby tournament which held at the Hard Rock Café under the supervision of Tokunboh Adebayo, the younger brother of Nigerian Rugby Legend, Dayo Adebayo and Ifeanyi Asiodu of the indefatigable Asiodu clan of rugby rockers. I understand team Asiodu will feature next year. This was a very different kind of outing and rugby lovers were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere of pure fun and entertainment for all the family. We are looking to make this a regular feature in our calendar and offer full support in future.
Then there was the well attended referee’s course with the Zimbabwean educators, resulting in more certificates for our indigenous refs and the coaching course held between December 12th and 15th. Mention must be made of Martin Crawford’s i-try program which showcased excellent schools rugby at the independence sevens as well as Madam Grace’s female rugby teams already starting to feature on the big stage. The Lagos league has also continued after the forced break and will be concluded by December.
I’m not forgetting the annual Sandie Beach tournament currently taking place at Tarkwa Bay.
What effort is your board making towards having a credible constitution as requested by Rugby Afrique?
To live up to our promise to Rugby Afrique, the first draft of our constitution will be released at the end of the week and distributed for further input and memoranda. This is indeed a major step because according to the parent body, ‘One of the first criteria for membership to Rugby Africa is that the union must have a validly adopted constitution’ and this first presentation is the initial step towards the adoption of the constitution. This is in addition to the Sports Minister’s instruction to all Federation Presidents at our inauguration urging us to have prepared our draft constitutions by the month of December because this is the last election that will be held using Government guidelines.
Therefore, we have no choice but to forge ahead, the instructions from both our present body, Rugby Africa and our Ministry of Sports and National Olympic Committee are clear and unequivocal.
Once all memoranda have been gathered, a special ‘Constitution adopting Extraordinary AGM’ is billed for a date in January 2018 at which the constitution will be validated. This extraordinary AGM will be attended by both representatives of the NOC and Rugby Afrique and copies of the draft constitution will be sent to both bodies at the end of the week for their input. This is the process recommended by the National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports which has been subsequently endorsed by Rugby Afrique as well as World Rugby and adopted by the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation.
How united is the Nigerian rugby family now?
We are one united, big family! It is worthy to note that in their letter dated 23rd November 2017, Rugby Afrique and World Rugby have fully recognized and endorsed the board I currently head as President.
The reason for my mentioning this is to disabuse the minds of the gullible who seem to have taken an impression that there is some confusion in the minds of the international body about this.
The current board led by my good self has been endorsed and recognized by the National Olympic Committee, the Federal Ministry of Sports and Rugby Afrique!
We have our written endorsements from all three bodies so this is a closed chapter.
The elections are past and the real work has started. The time for confusionists is over and only hard and sincere workers are welcome going forward. We, in conjunction with the NOC, will be publishing the composition of the Extraordinary AGM for the purpose of validating the constitution before Christmas. Please look out for it as this will also form the basis of Rugby Afrique’s sending of an observer.
Finally, what is the future of Nigerian rugby going to look like with all these positive achievements by your board?
The future is bright, as you can see the league committee met on Saturday the 2nd of December to streamline activities, so you can equally expect a calendar of the three leagues duly sanctioned by the board; they are the Northern league, Lagos league and the South-South/South East league.
Our finance and sponsorship committee have been on the move especially after Rugby Afrique and the NOC were kind of enough to provide us with enough endorsement to legitimize our pursuit of new sponsors and meetings have been set up with two organizations that intend to feature largely in our affairs in future. Look out for the names of Vodacom and Fidelity Bank to join CMB as major sponsors of Rugby in Nigeria.
Therefore, I advise rugby fans to fasten their seat belts as we intend to break all speed limits in our quest to achieving major land marks and take giant steps in the progression of this delightful sport on our fair and fertile Nigerian soil.
