The Secretary General of the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF), Olalekan Faseein has given reasons Boris Van der Vorst, World Boxing president is visiting Nigeria this weekend, reports www.totorinews.com
He made it clear that the visit of Van der Vorst is to foster a better relationship between the NBF and WB, which has been given tentative recognition by International Olympic Committee ( IOC) after International Boxing Association ( IBA) was suspended by the Olympic ruling body.
“Boris Van der Vorst, the president of World Boxing will be visiting begining from Sunday, 23 February and he will depart on 26th of February. NBF is glad that Van der Vorst will be coming to the country and it is a milestone achievement, a kind of historic event to have him arounnd,” Faseein told www.totorinews.com in Abuja.
“His visit will afford Nigeria to discuss capacity building for boxing officials.
“In addition, his visit will set the stage for a bold reform and revitalization of boxing in Nigeria which aligns with president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda.
“It will further deepen our relationship with the international body, thereby positioning boxing administrators in Nigeria to be on a platform to negotiate seats at the international level, attract Olympic qualifiers, for instance, we will be glad to have Nigeria host boxing Olympics qualifying tournament. Senegal had hosted in the past.
“Also capacity building courses for boxing officials, boxing equipment and other interventions that may be necessary for the development of boxing in Nigeria,” he added.
When asked about the issue of transgender, he explained that Nigeria is under World Boxing based on the relationship with IOC, which endorsed WB after they broke their relationship with IBA, noting that it had nothing to do with transgender.
“Nigeria is a member of IOC. When IOC ended their relationship with IBA, they entered relationship with WB. The truth is that Van der Vorst recently became the WB President and he has been mandated to get more countries into WB. WB is still on probation pending when IOC will give their full approval.
“Some countries belong to IBA. Nigeria as a member of IOC chose WB after IOC denounced IBA. The Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who had been allegedly described as transgender did not fight under WB at the Paris Olympics. The crisis was already on and some countries whose boxers qualified for the Olympics competed independently in Paris.
“I don’t think NBF has broken any law of Nigeria with the visit of Van der Vorst, WB President,” he concluded.
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