Concern players and coaches of the Sierra Leone Boxing Association have written a letter to the Ministry of Sports complaining the scribe of the association Christian Campbell with the caption; Complaint against the Secretary General (SIERRA LEONE BOXING ASSOCIATION)
The letter reads; With reference to the above, the aforementioned concerned Boxers and Coaches of the Sierra Leone Boxing association write to draw your attention and to make an official complaint against Christian Campbell (Secretary General SLBA).
The Secretary General has been in office for over twenty years yet there is hardly any visible development under his reign. The Secretary General has not been able to provide the conducive atmosphere to help us achieve our full potentials.
There had not been any local competition organized by the SLBA for over ten years hence killing the game and denying us the opportunity to materialize our full potentials; save for the one organized by the SLBA in collaboration with the Ministry of Sport with support from Mercury International at the tennis court on 22nd April, 2016 where the Secretary General demonstrated abysmal attitude towards the organization of the competition between Abu Bakar Katta and Daniel Lassayo.
The Secretary General has over the years engaged in denying athletes (boxers) the opportunity to represent the country in international competitions by forcing his way into those trips even though he hasn’t got any role to play; thereby misrepresenting the country’s national federation. In 2000, the Secretary General was part of the delegation to England for the Commonwealth games thereby denying an athlete the opportunity to travel. 2006 he also occupied the space of an athlete for the trip to Australia for the Commonwealth games. He was also part of the 2012 delegation to China for the Olympics and was as well part of the 2014 trip to Scotland for the Commonwealth games, all of which denied other athletes the opportunity to go and represent the Country.
We have for far too long witnessed a complete absence of coordination and collaboration within the executive of SLBA as a result of the maladministration of the Secretary General thereby negatively affecting the smooth running of the game. We the Boxers are suffering, we have little or no training equipment country wide which have affected the growth of the sport at Regional and District level.
We also made to understand that it is because SLBA has not been paying its dues to the parent body (IBA) hence the association is not benefiting what it’s supposed to have been benefiting from the parent body.
The SLBA witnessed one of it worse moment when a coach from the parent body visited the association to help train some coaches to meet international standard. As a result, we were told by the foreign coach that there is no Sierra Leonean Boxing coach with two star qualification in boxing contrary to what our Secretary General had told us before. The Secretary General had single handedly appointed a national coach he purported to be a holder of two star qualification in Boxing, the said coach also happened to be the coach who was not allowed to perform his duty during the Commonwealth games due to the fact that he was not qualified. We view the above acts as unfortunate and created enormous embarrassment not only to the boxing association but the Country at large.
The Secretary General over the years has personalized the association and share information with no one; and has not been able to issue out any minute of previous meetings.
The most disturbing one is the fact that the Secretary General during previous elective congresses has been bringing in unregistered and none existing clubs as delegates for election purposes and after election, the clubs are no more.
The clubs amongst others includes, Best Buy Center (BBC), Kroo Bay, Tiwana, Fighters factory. These clubs are without Boxers and can only surface when there is an election.
In lieu of the above, we wish to draw your attention and also the Sport Council to the above concerns and anomalies and ask that you intervene as soon as possible to help identify the real delegates as per provisions of the association’s statute ahead of our proposed elective congress that is expected in February 2017.
Additionally, We the undersigned actual Boxers and Coaches of the Sierra Leone Boxing association have therefore resolved that Christian Campbell should not continue to serve in the capacity as Secretary General of SLBA and should with immediate effect cease to serve in that capacity.
… and Boxing Scribe denies allegations
The scribe of Sierra Leone Boxing Association Christian Campbell has strongly denied allegations raised by some 26 aggrieved boxers and coaches against him in a complaint letter.
Reacting to the complaint, Campbell confirmed that he has received the letter which he said lacks any iota of truth. “I have read through the letter. It doesn’t have any serious content in it. Those who signed it just want to tarnish my name, all in the name of boxing politics.”
He stated that the wrongdoers who claimed to be boxers and coaches “don’t have the right as per our constitution to forward such complaint against an official. “What they did should be done by the delegates who have the legitimacy to vote or be voted for in congress.”
Campbell revealed that few weeks ago in their extraordinary Congress none of the delegates raised such issues against him because they trust and believe in what he is doing for the association.
“These are people from one constituency in the boxing association. Most of them are from Sierra Leone Police Boxing Club. They are the same set of people who came up with similar allegations three years ago during our elective congress. But I was re-elected as Secretary General of the association in that very elective congress by the rightful delegates,” he disclosed.
Campbell denied that he has served as Secretary in the association for 20 years as alleged by the aggrieved boxers and coaches. He said he was elected Secretary of the association in 2005.
“In fact there is no time limit for the position of Secretary General as mandated by our constitution. One could serve in that capacity as many years as you can, as long as you have the experience and qualification to be there,” he stated.
The boxing scribe pointed out that the association has on several occasion staged competitive boxing bouts at the Siaka Steven Stadium Tennis and Basketball courts. Adding, they’ve also staged an ECOWAS Boxing competition here in Freetown.
He added that he has not at any time deprived boxers from representing the country, but rather give equal opportunity to those that train hard and qualify to represent the country in international competitions.
He furthered that all those clubs which the aggrieved boxers alleged of not having boxers and he Campbell is the one who accredited them to the association, are blatant lies. He said the clubs went through the necessary process and they were approved in previous congress.
Campbell explained that the aggrieved group have an intention of forcing an unqualified person who doesn’t have a club to contest the position of secretary.
“That’s the whole game, they want me out because they want to bring someone who I understand doesn’t have any business with boxing. The race is open, but one has to be qualified before contesting.”
“He/she must have a club, must have served the executive committee for 4 years and must be a registered member of the association under the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) data base before contesting for position in our association. We are not against anybody, but they should go through the legitimate process,” he stressed.
The SLBA Secretary General concluded by warning the boxers and coaches of the aggrieved group to refrain from such act and be steadfast on their training to improve themselves.
By Bernard Turay
Monday January 23, 2017
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