Federation Elections: Board Member Urges Minister To Rescue Boxing From Dying

Federation Elections: Board Member Urges Minister To Rescue Boxing From Dying By Niyi Busari Former National boxing team coach and board member of Nigeria Boxing Federation, Adura Olalehin, has urged the Minister of Sports Sunday Dare to rescue the the federation from dying in the hands of interlopers. The former African Games medalist in an interview with BSN Sports in Abuja accused the former president of Boxing Federation, Kenneth Minimah of not doing enough to develop the game during his reigns alleging that bringing him back as president will further underdeveloped the game. He said, "Boxing game not in the Olympics made me sad and the people that were there did not do anything. I mean all the board members. "The former president cannot be proud of any boxer that was discovered during his eight years reign. The only one produced in the last 6 years is Efe Ajagba. The former president cannot even name just two Nigeria boxers. Right now, we are getting it wrong again. Yesterday, we have the list if people that want to participate in the election and this morning, we have a different name and surprisingly, tonight, we have another list. My question to the Minister of Sports is "Are they developing or killing sports? Everything is not about politics. The development of the game is paramount. In fact, the Ministry of Sports is killing sports in Nigeria. I could remember during Patrick Ikeji, Amos Adamu boxing was flourishing. We had our kits from Germany and many Nigerians wanted to take it from us but now, the kits comes from Ojuelegba. "The Federation don't have original hand glove, quality punching bag in preparation to participate in any international competition and Minimah Kenneth being there for eight to ten years. "Bringing Kenneth Minimah back will not help boxing grow. Every plan to re-install Minimah will damage boxing for the next four years. In the 2016 Olympics, Nigeria went with one boxer, the Tokyo Olympics, Nigeria went with nothing and if these people come back to rule, the game will die a premature death. And if the Minister allows this to happen, we will ask him what he did when we called his attention to correct the wrong." He concluded.