Comedian Bovi hosted the 2019 edition of the NFF Awards, and top sports media personalities including Deji Omotoyinbo, Temisan Okomi, Biola Kazeem, Mozez Praiz and Chisom Mbonu faulted Nigeria’s football body for choosing a non-football person for the hosting duties. 

Speaking on the debut edition of the Facetime Original Series by the Hindsight Podcast, the sportscasters knocked the NFF for failing to cater for the umpires of sports in the country. 

It was SuperSport’s Praiz who raised the point at the roundtable. 

“Sport is unique, it’s just on its own, so it will be weird that at a sporting event, you will have a doctor as the compère of the event,” Praiz, who is also a presenter at Smooth FM, said. 

“The NFF Awards, Bovi had no business being the compère of that event. Imagine the Oscars having the C. Ronaldo MCing it.” 

The remaining guests agreed. “Every business is an ecosystem, and we’ve got to water that ecosystem, if not, there will be no system,” Kazeem, who was well known for his time at HiTV, added. 

In agreement, veteran sportscaster Omotoyinbo recalled when comedian Yaw, actress Funke Akindele and singer Banky W represented Nigeria as Olympic torchbearers for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. 

“The Bovi thing you mentioned, I thought it was an insult to every single person here and everybody who has been in that ecosystem,” SuperSport’s Mbonu added. 

That was one of the main talking points of the roundtable, where they discussed a range of issues affecting sports in Nigeria. 

Also on the show, the broadcasters gave their thoughts on the slow growth rate in the sports industry. 

The media personalities also spoke on their respective personal career journey and how they discovered their passion for sports media.