Sunday Okobi
The Raw Materials and Research Development Commission (RMRDC) Sports Club has elected Ms Amina Abdulmalik as its first female chairman to succeed Mr. Lapai Umar Batako, whose tenure just ended.
Abdulmalik is a trained engineer, elected to lead the 13-member council.
Checks revealed that the election by 400 members of the club was widely seen as a true reflection of popular choice, which took place in Maitama, Abuja.
The development has raised fresh hope that the new leaders will improve on the achievements of the Lapai-led team.
The new executive council members are Ms Amina Abdulmalik, (Chairman); Mr. Olufemi Olubunmi (Vice Chairman); Mr. Barde Idris Musa (Secretary-General); Dr. A. Abubakar (Assistant Secretary-General); Mr. Ujah Hassan (Financial Secretary), and Mr. Anyanwu Ugueze, (Supporters’ Club) among others.
Many members who spoke to journalists said they believed that the former team raised the quality of the RMRDS Sports Club as a ranking flagship sports organisation among leading sports clubs of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government in Abuja.
They particularly commended them for successfully hosting Abuja 2022 of the 17th edition of the Research Institutes Games Association of Nigeria (RIGAN) at which over 998 contingents drawn from 23 research institutes competed for medals and trophies in indoor and outdoor sporting events. The RMRDC defeated the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin, in the soccer finals to win the coveted gold medal.
At her inauguration, the newly elected chairman thanked the members, promising to be fair to all, as urged them to be more committed and give more support to the management.
She said the management had displayed tremendous interest in the success of the sports club for which she requested the continued cooperation and prayers of the members.
She thanked the Director-General of RMRDC, Professor Hussaini Doko, for his usual assistance in the success of the last RIGAN games and other laudable projects of the Sports Club.
Also, Lapai urged the new executive to see their emergence as the will of God, advising them to work for the members and the aspirations of the management.
Meanwhile, one of the organisers of the event, Mr. Emeka Nwankpa, yesterday noted that the Lapai Batako-led succeeded in getting the DG to develop RMRDC’s sport thereby nurturing and promoting a mentally fit, physically healthy and highly motivated workforce for efficient and effective service delivery.
According to him, the RMRDC Sports Club has also maintained strict compliance with federal government’s monthly walking/jogging/keep fit exercise for all public servants in the various MDA sports, describing it as a veritable tool for the promotion of mental alertness, physical fitness and motivated workforce.
