One of Nigeria’s foremost grassroots sports administrator, Prince Wale Oladunjoye, has advised Engr. Dayo Akindoju, the president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), to ensure the players have a worthy representative in his cabinet.
This advice is coming on the recent plan by the ladies to boycott the upcoming national tennis championship over claims of marginalization and insensitivity to their gender, a situation which has been quickly averted by the president’s timely intervention.
According to Prince Oladunjoye, the tournament director of the annual Governor’s Cup Tennis Championship in Lagos, getting a national captain will ease the communication process as he will be a member of a committee which decides players’ fate.
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| The NTF President has been asked to appoint a national captain for the players to aid their communication with the federation. |
In a chat with Nigerian Tennis Live, he asked the players to be patient with the federation, since they have only recently been inaugurated and are yet to fully settle down to work.
“They should be patient for the new federation executives to settle down as they have also promised grassroots development.
“If I see the president, I will advise him to appoint a national captain (by conducting an election among all the players both home and abroad on the list of the NTF) to be a member of the technical sub-committee.
“The person will serve as a link to keep the players informed on happenings within the highest level of administration, while ensuring correct info gets to all the players.
“Besides, the reason for existence of any federation is the welfare of their athletes. Now that there is a complaint nipped in d bud, it is inevitable for all federations going forward (to cater for their athletes).
“The national captain must enjoy the confidence of all the players and he’s expected to feed them back and where there is a loss of confidence, the players will inform the president and a process to elect a new rep is put in place within two weeks. The federation will only act as an observer,” the man fondly called Prince explained.