Williams hopeful of ‘Friends of Rugby’ bid
The International Rugby Board Educator for Nigeria and spokesperson for the ‘Friends of Rugby’ Ntiense Williams has said that the ‘Friends of Rugby’ will emerged victorious in its bid to take over the affairs of rugby through the National Sports Commission (NSC) ongoing concession of sports federation – Public Private partnership (PPP) despite ground plot by the secretary of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation, Adeniyi Beyioku to rubbish the body’s dream.
Williams who listed Beyioku’s latest crime as the deliberate withholding of their invitation letter from the bid committee currently over seeing the restructuring of national sports federations through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) put together by the Sports Minister / Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC), Engr. Sanni Ndanusa.
“We read in the dailies of the desires of the National Sports Commission to concession all the national sports federations, and after wide consultation with our members mainly Club proprietors, we decided to put in a bid for the game of Rugby before the end of last year.
“Unfortunately, we did not receive an acknowledgement of our bid by the Bids Technical Committee as expected. When we read in the dailies that the Hon. Minister / Chairman of the National Sports Commission Engr. Sani Ndanusa, was to declare open the presentation of the bid’s Technical Committee, we approached the committee who were already receiving presentations from the invited bidders.
“Luckily for us, I was allowed to make a presentation on self-recognition by members of the bid committee, and my explanation that we did not get an acknowledgement and invitation letter to the bid presentation, warranted our inability to be fully prepared with all the requirements.
“The Committee was magnanimous enough to allow me to address the committee and they eventually discovered that our letter was dispatched on the January 5 and physically collected by the Rugby Federation Secretary General Adeniyi Beyioku, who till today has not delivered the said National assignment to the intended recipients.
“It was also noted that the Rugby scribe had actually collected two letters on the day being ours and that of Racing Rugby Club an affiliate of “Friends of Rugby. He delivered that of Racing Rugby Club, but deliberately decided to withhold ours to give Racing Rugby Club an unfair advantage in the bid process, because of his personal interest in the bid process.
“I am very proud of the membership of the esteemed Bid Technical Committee who saw the foul play and accorded us the opportunity to get a copy of the said invitation letter and all the requirements. They then asked us to put up an appeal with all the requirements to the Director General Patrick Ekeji for consideration as the bid presentation was concluded on Thursday 15 January 2009.
“We are positive on our mission for rugby and win come out triumphant,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of “Friends of Rugby” Kelechi Mbagwu, has sued for fairness for all the bidders from the committee. As he puts it: “All we need is a level playing field for all bidders to present their interest and allow the bid Committee to do its job. Our antecedent will surely speak for us. All what we have done has been a genuine and selfless development of Rugby in Nigeria and we are still prepared to contribute our quarter as required,” he pleaded.
It will be recalled that the “Friends of Rugby” under the leadership of Mbagwu have been organizing and sponsoring Rugby activities in the last three years ranging from the 2007& 2008 Lagos Rugby Union League, IRB Certified Coaching Courses & players Clinics in conjunction with London Nigerian Rugby Football Club and Addax Rugby Club, Schools Programs, Independence Rugby Celebrations, the 1st Female Rugby 7’s Tournament in Nigeria just to mention a few. Right now they have just embarked on donation of Rugby equipments to encourage the establishment of Rugby Clubs in Abia & Niger state respectively.
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