Nigeria Olympic Committee

Nigeria Olympic Committee

Nigeria Olympic Committee logo
Country/Region	Nigeria
Code	NGR
Created	1950
Recognized	1951
Continental Association	ANOCA
Headquarters	Lagos, Nigeria
President	Habu Ahmed Gumel
Secretary General	Tunde Popoola
Website	www.nigerianoc.org

The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) is the National Olympic Committee for Nigeria, responsible for co-ordinating and supporting Nigerian competitors in the Olympic Games. It is also the body responsible for Nigeria's representation at the Commonwealth Games.

The President of the NOC as of 2011 was Sani Ndanusa who had been Minister of Sports from 17 December 2008 to 17 March 2010. Ndanusa first said he aspired to become NOC President when he was Minister of Sports, but in November 2009 the NOC screening committee disqualified him on the basis that documents he had submitted were allegedly "forged, altered and not dated". To be eligible for NOC President a candidate has to have served for four years in an executive position in an international sports federation. The NOC said that Ndanusa had not yet served for four years as Vice-President of the Confederation of African Tennis, and alleged that his election as President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation was invalid since he did not attend the election.

Ndanusa responded by suspending the incumbent NOC President Habu Gumel from his post as President of the Nigeria Volley Ball Federation and setting up a commission of inquiry into the allegations. He was elected in September 2010 to replace former president Habu Gumel, and Tunde Popola was elected as Secretary General with 21 votes against two votes for the incumbent Banji Oladapo. At first, the IOC declared that the election was invalid since the outgoing President and Secretary General of the NOC had not been present. A second election was held at which Ndanusa was the only candidate and the IOC accepted the result.

Due to a growing number of court cases related to sports in Nigeria, in January 2011 the NOC began the process to establish a local branch of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Engineer Sani Ndanusa said "We are highly disturbed by the number of court cases in Nigerian sports. If we do not check this ugly incident, Nigerian sports will slide into the valley".

On 5 July 2011, the NOC again delayed inauguration of the new board of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) when key members of the NRFF board failed to show up. On 14 July 2011 the NOC finally brought together the feuding parties of NRFF, inaugurating a new board. The NOC Scribe, Honourable Tunde Popoola wiped away tears at the ceremony.