The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) is still waiting the clearance of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from the list of countries that have not complied with its anti-doping code.
This is coming after the world anti-doping clearance of Tunisia and Angola from the list of non-complaint countries to the code.
WADA’s executive committee at the weekend voted and removed Angola’s NOC with immediate effect from the list of signatories that do not comply with its code.
The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Angola’s non-compliance was the result of its failure to fully implement the 2021 version of the World Anti-Doping Code into the national legal system.
Early this year, WADA listed Nigeria, Venezuela, Angola and Tunisia, among countries that have not domesticated its anti-doping code in their system.
This prompted the Nigeria’s NOC to head to the Court for the Arbitration of Sports (CAS) to buy time to comply with the code under Article 9.3.1 of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories.
In April, WADA freed Tunisia from the list, and just this weekend, the body also voted to exclude Angola from the list.
For not complying with the code, WADA ruled that Nigeria would lose the privileges guaranteed by the organisation until it was reinstated, as well as the impossibility of Nigerian representatives being eligible for any position within WADA.
It also means that Nigeria will not be able to fly its flag at international competitions, including the forthcoming Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Reacting to the Nigerian situation, NOC Spokesperson, Tony Nezianya, said the country had nothing to worry about because “the issues have been resolved.”
Nezianya said: “When we received the WADA notification, we went to CAS to ask for time to domesticate the code.
“We have since done that through the National Assembly and it is now part of Nigerian laws. I believe WADA will also free Nigeria because they are aware of the current situation of things in the country.”
