Abuja — The Minister of Youth and Sports development, Solomon Dalung, inaugurated the boards of 29 sport federations in Abuja, yesterday. The inauguration followed the just-concluded elections into executive positions of various sports federations.

The boards of athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, darts, fives, Volleyball, Handball and squash were among the boards inaugurated.

Others were table tennis, deaf sports, Tennis, para-soccer, judo, kick-boxing, karate, traditional sports, weightlifting, kuffun, rowing, shooting, golf, scrabble and wrestling.

However, the boards of gymnastic, rugby, taekwondo were not inaugurated, due to court order.

According to Dalung, the 29 inaugurated boards have an onerous task to turnaround the fortune of Nigeria's sports by going to the grassroots to discover young talents that will replace the aging ones.

He said the inauguration signals the official take-off of democratization of the electoral process in the Nigeria's sports federations, saying the government will grant autonomy to various sporting federations, and won't interfere with their activities any longer.

"This is the final lap of the democratisation process of the national sports federations. It is time to give support and make necessary contributions that will positively transform our sports.

"Be alive to your responsibilities and discharge them with sense of commitment to ensure speedy development of sports and optimal performance of Nigeria at international competitions.

"Government cannot continue funds sports and it grant autonomy to the various sports federations. "This means, every federations must within the next three months in office provide their constitutions, get approve by the congress and submit the copy to us. I repeat, this will be last elections of sports federations will be conducted with the guidelines," he said.

He enjoined the boards of sports federation to work with the stakeholders at the state and zonal level and as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports to fast the development of their sports at all levels.