Ogun Judo Chairman backs southwest coaches’ call for removal of Yusuf

CHAIRMAN, Ogun State Judo Association, Segun Gbayi, has joined a call by judo coaches in the southwest zone for the removal of the zone’s representative on the caretaker committee of the Nigeria Judo Federation, Mr Bolaji Yusuf.

Some weeks ago, the Ekiti State judo coach, Morakinyo Akinwale, in a petition to the Minister of Youth and Sport, Mr Sunday Dare, based his protest on the fact that Bolaji Yusuf is not a judoka and that in the four years he had spent on the board, there is absolutely nothing to show for it.

Other judo coaches in the southwest also joined Akinwale by demanding the immediate removal of Yusuf.

Gbayi, while declaring his support for the coaches noted that: “In the last four years that Bolaji Yusuf has been on the caretaker committee of the Nigeria Judo Federation as the southwest representative, he has not done anything.

“He did not organise a single programme, that was why in the recently held National Sports Festival in Edo State, the southwest had a very bad record in the history of the sports festival. It has never happened before, because there were no build-up competitions ahead of the National Sports Festival.

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“In the past, there would be competitions before the festival. This would have prepared them for the task ahead, they would have known areas to improve on before heading to the National Sports Festival.

“But unfortunately in the era of Bolaji Yusuf, there is nothing like that. I want to state here that we are not fighting anyone, what we want is that we want a technocrat who has a deep understanding of the system to be our representative.

“Bolaji Yusuf does not know anything about judo, he has never been on the mat to fight. Judo is a very sensitive game, if you do know it, you do not know it. We do not speak English in judo like in any other sport, we speak in Japanese and if you do not understand it, you can never understand it.

“Bolaji Yusuf is like a stranger in our house, we do not want him, let the Minister remove him. I am using this opportunity to throw my voice behind the coaches in the southwest as the first athlete representative in Nigeria and as the Chairman, Ogun State Judo Association and a board member in Bramton Judo Device, Canada in the call that a person that would lead judo in the southwest must be a judoka.

“There is a law at the International Judo Federation that if you must head a judo body, you must be a judoka, so why are we going contrary to what the international law is saying? Let us get it right, let the Minister remove Bolaji Yusuf and put somebody that is qualified,” he concluded.