1992 Commonwealth silver medallist, Christy Obekpa has accused the Technical Director of Nigeria Judo Federation, Ewa Ekuta of imposing himself on the national team as coach ahead of the 2019 All Africa Games in Morocco.
The former Africa champion in a letter titled “Petition on the selection of coaches for the 2019 All Africa Games and on the technical director, Nigeria Judo Federation” said the technical director should resign his position if he wants to become the national team coach.
The Ogun state coach said the non selection of a female coach is discrimination against the female gender calling on the President of the Nigeria Judo Federation, Prince Timothy Nsirim to wade into the matter.
She said, “I see the non inclusion of a female coach as discrimination against the female gender. NJF is a federation with female Africa champion and Commonwealth champions. And also, we have two female athletes in the camp alongside two male athletes, which means the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development are preaching gender equality. Why should the federation discriminate?
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“Furthermore, the position of the chairman technical committee should in course of this All Africa Games be clearly differentiated from the national team coach. The fate of the NJF should not be decided by one man who is the technical director and at the same time wanting to be the National team coach.
“Mr President, I will like you to look into this matter critically. My points are, two male coaches should not be selected to camp when we have female athletes in camp and capable female coaches in the federation. Also, if the technical director will like to take the position of the national team coach, he should honorably resign his position as the technical director and vice versa”, she said.
The Technical Director of Nigeria Judo Federation, Ewa Ekuta in a telephone conversation with www.aclsports.com said the federation is not discriminating the female gender.
