What I will do as President of Badminton Federation of Nigeria – G.S. Gbayan

Gbayan, Badminton Federation presidential aspirant

By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja –

Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Badminton Association, Mr. Gabriel Gbayan, has explained that his interest in the presidency of the Badminton Federation of Nigerian (BFN) is to take the sports to greater heights.

Gbayan, who is a leading contestant in the BFN elections scheduled to hold on September 30, 2021 in Abuja, said at the weekend that indeed, he plans to place Badminton in a proper pedestal to compete globally and open the world to its teeming Nigerian players and enthusiasts.

The BFN presidential aspirant is not coming from nowhere. He has been Chairman of the FCT Badminton Association since 2014 and a member of the board of BFN where he represents the North-Central zone.

In those positions, Gbayan is credited with successfully organizing various badminton competitions, including those for U-15, U-19 and U-21 in Abuja in 2015, as well as the National Badminton Classic in Katsina-Ala, Benue State (2016) and the North-Central Badminton Championship in Minna, Niger State (2018).

He equally sponsored the Abubakar Sani Bello North-Central Zonal Badminton Championship in Minna, Niger State in 2019, just as he facilitated the successful hosting of several in-house tournaments involving all grades of players in the FCT, including veteran competition.

Also, to Gbayan’s credit is his sole sponsorship of 80 umpires across the country in 2018 on a course in Abuja for the first time in 10 years, just as he co-sponsored an invitational championship for active and veterans in Jo’s, Plateau state in April 2021where he also presented Badminton rackets, pairs of canvas, amongst others to players.

He is also known to have had sponsored so many players to national and international competitions in the recent past.

The BFN Presidential hopeful, whose transformation imprint signposts Badminton in FCT to the national and international stage, was recently quoted by Best ChoiceSports to have expressed displeasure with the state of the Federation secretariat when he went to submit his form.

While promising to transform the place if and when elected president of BFN, Gbayan also outlined his operational strategy as engagement, integration and collaboration to achieve the dream of the founding fathers of the game of badminton.

He told Best ChoiceSports, “I want a less rancour arrangement that every stakeholder will be considered to achieve our objectives of improving this game in all its facets.”

Our findings with the badminton circles across Nigerian showed that many stakeholders in the game are confident in Gbayan, who is generally perceived as a go-getter and and a proven achiever, who can be entrusted with the leadership of the BFN.

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