Date: 2016-10-31

Head of the Kinesiology, Health Education and Sports Administration Department at the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete-Ilorin, Professor Mohammed Baba Gambari, has been appointed President of the rejuvenated Nigeria Society of Sports Management (NSSM).

The 56-year-old professor of sports management and administration and Provost, College of Education at KWASU, who took over the position from Prof. Clement Oluwasuen Fasan of the University of Lagos, was unveiled at a meeting last week in Ibadan where former director at the National Sports Commission, Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba, and NSC's Zone II Coordinator, Dr. Steve Olarinoye, among other sports administrators, were present.

Gambari, a keen tennis player whose hobbies also include reading and traveling, said at the weekend that the appointment had come at a time he described as auspicious.

"Sports in Nigeria is in a critical state at the moment and needs direction that can be most sustainable and this is exactly what myself and my time will aim to address in the most efficient and professional way," the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria product who was also former two-term head of the Physical and Health Education at the Bayero University, Kano remarked.

"We will aim to have an inclusive society of sports managers in Nigeria and we are resolved to collaborate with the Federal Sports Ministry, states' sports ministries, as well as other sports agencies to elevate the fortune of sports in the country to world class," the university don, whose two decades of teaching experience focuses on Motor Learning, Research Method, Sports Management and Psychology, among others, added.

Gambari, a former NUGA technical sub-committee member who is also a contemporary of the immediate past NSC's director general, Alhaji Alhassan Yakmut, has already received solidarity message from former Nigeria's tennis great, Prof. Sadiq A. Abdullahi, who pledged full support for the new NSSM boss in a congratulatory message sent from his Florida, USA base yesterday.