The substantive Executive Director of the National Sports Authority, Dr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq, is being celebrated for not only scoring 28 goals under one year but also for meeting NSA’s six point mandate as enshrined in the agency’s Act of 2007, Part 3.
The hardworking learned lawyer, entrepreneur, lecturer, civil rights activist, and philanthropist is one among the dedicated countrymen and women who are positioned to drive President Bio’s Big Five Game-Changers to the shores possibilities.
His first mandate is to provide leadership in the development of sports in Sierra Leone. He has delivered this umbrella need, making it clear to the 59 sporting associations that securing government funding means having a functional governance structure, national identity, pronounced yearly national tournaments, and striving for international competitiveness. These requirements have made a number of sporting associations better, meaningful, and developmental.
His second mandate is to encourage the participation of Sierra Leoneans in sports. For this, he pushed for government support to enable Sierra Leonean gymnasts to participate in the Azerbaijan Gymnastics tournament last year, bringing home multiple gold medals. He led similar efforts to see the Sierra Leone Single Leg Amputees participate in the Egypt Single Leg Nations Cup where they won Fair Play Trophy.
He bought four air tickets to enable the Sierra Leone Mass Wrestling Team to participate in the NOMAD Tournament in Kazakhstan last year. This does not include the multiple local tournaments he sponsored to encourage mass participation in sports.
His third mandate is about providing resources, services, and facilities to enable Sierra Leoneans to pursue and achieve excellence in sports while furthering their education. To actualize this, he pushed for four people (three women and one man), through his diplomatic relations with the Chinese Embassy, to do a two-week Anti-doping course in China last year.
That achievement also ties in with his fourth mandate, which is to improve the sporting abilities of Sierra Leoneans. To clear the path towards this, he invited over eighty sport administrators from 59 sporting associations last year to deliberate on the Position of Trust regulations and the National Sport Development Foundation. The idea was not only to institutionalise these regulations but also to open broader conversation on how the capacity of sportsmen and women could be developed.
His fifth mandate is to foster co-operation in sports between Sierra Leone and other countries. Dr. Abdulai’s commitment to engage the Chinese Embassy and the Envoy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia spoke volumes about his willingness to develop sports in Sierra Leone, tapping assistance from diplomatic relations.
His final mandate is to encourage and promote private sector sponsorship in sports. For this, he engaged banks such as the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Zenith, Bank of Sierra Leone, and others. The idea is to mobilize resources to support Leone Stars and to help with the purchase of sporting equipment to boost participation from all sporting disciplines.
If Dr. Abdulai could reach this resounding feat under one year, what could one say about him in the years to come?
