By Victor Kanayo
Two Nigerians – Mr. Michael Ango, Mr. Denen Ikya, have been appointed into the Federation International de l’Automobile, (FIA), with Mr. Ishaku Bamayi elected into the World Motorsport Council.
Mr. Bamaiyi, who is also the President of Automobile and Touring Club of Nigeria, (ATCN) revealed this in an interview with Heritage Times HT in Abuja.
He said, “At the last Annual General Assembly of December, 2022, Mr. Michael Ango, was elected as member and President of the FIA Ethics Committee while Mr. Denen Ikya was elected as a member. Furthermore, the World Motorsport Council elected the President of the ATCN Mr. Ishaku Bamaiyi as a member of the CIK-FIA International Karting and the FIA Drifting Commissions.
“The elections are in recognition of the contributions and efforts made by the ATCN in developing motorsport in Nigeria and Africa.
“This has put us in a great position to achieve more and for this year, the ATCN has drawn up a unique calendar to spur faster development, equality, diversity and inclusion.
“Thus, for a faster development process, we are in partnership with the Motorsport UK, India, Sri Lanka and Emirates Motorsport Organisation which is ATCN’s Regional Training Provider appointed by the FIA.”
The ATCN also said the club intend to harness more sporting talents across the nation at the grassroots in Nigeria.
Bamaiyi said the sports club has intensified plans to fish out 150 students in karting programmes at various schools.
He said special attention will also be channelled on discovering and training young girls in the sport, as part of programmes knwon as ‘Girls on Track’.
According to him, “The essence of these programme is to promote motoring sports at the grassroots level by targeting the young ones.
“Please note that this trainings are part of the FIA motorsport development programmes.
“We want to stir up interest of participants through karting in school in order to develop their skill or talent because many of you can build a career in motoring sports, which is a big business all over the world.”
Mr. Bamayi also said the motorsport body in Nigeria will train 35 young Nigerians, who will represent Africa in an international competition, where Senegal and Ivory Coast will share remaining 15 slots to complete the 50 for Africa.
Other events this year, according to ATCN Boss include; Speed trials, digital games (epsport), Festival of motorsport, among others.
He listed other achievements of ATCN to include; hosting the 3rd African Regional Sport Congress 2017, organising the School Assessment – Make School Roads Safer to Save Lives of Children, organised training for motorsport officials and marshals ie; race director, clerk of the course, stewards, motorsport safety marshals etc, and participating in Gymkhana International Prize, Taipei, Taiwan 2019.
Others include; organising motorsport training for school pupils ages 11-17 called karting in schools, organising the Festival of Motorsport: qualifier to the FIA Motorsport Games 2022 and participating in the FIA Motorsport Games 2022, Marseille, France.
ATCN was registered in June, 2009 with the aims and objectives to train Nigerians and organise motorsport events/championships on the one hand, create awareness for road safety, environmental issues etc, on the other hand.
ATCN is the sole representative of FIA for its operations in Nigeria with a voting rights at the Annual General Assembly and other meetings.
It was first affiliated to FIA in accordance to Article 3.2 of its statutes on the Automobile Mobility and Tourism Arm. At the Annual General Assembly December, 2018, the ATCN was given the rights to develop motorsport in Nigeria because of its achievements on the Mobility Arm.
FIA is the sole governing body of Motorsport worldwide and representative of over 60 million road and track users from 246 member clubs worldwide, and is the global motoring organisation.
