By Gracious Akujobi The Commonwealth Handball Association has named Nigeria’s Mark Jacob as the Association’s new Executive Director.
According to official statement released by the 64 nations’ organization, Mark Jacob is expected to “take over with immediate effect”.
The statement signed by the Secretary General of the Association, Gen. Ishola Williams (rtd), stated that the appointment of Kaduna state-born Mark Jacob was based on his track records in area of sports development especially handball.
Gen Ishola said after wide consultations, it was certain that there was no other better candidate to take up the job of repositioning the Association at this critical period than him.
In his reaction, Mark Jacob expressed surprise that his little contributions in the development of game of handball would be acknowledged with such a massive appointment stating that he would work hard not to betray the trust reposed on him by the executive committee of Commonwealth Handball Association.
“I feel honoured with this appointment but I know that the reward for hard work is more work. We are going to swing into action immediately and make changes where necessary in order to continue the development of handball in Commonwealth nations” he said.
Jacob, a former Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of Kaduna State and later the National Legal Adviser of Nigeria ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has held a lot of strategic positions in the administration of handball both in Nigeria and Africa.
He was also a former Vice President of Handball Federation of Nigeria and later acting president for over three years. He had also served in various committees of Confederation of African Handball.
As a player, he represented his home state Kaduna in various categories and won a lot of laurels. He later had a stint with the Nigeria national handball team. He succeeded another Nigerian, Attahiru Garba.
Commonwealth Handball Association was moved to Abuja, Nigeria in 1990 by Brigadier Ishola Williams (Now a retired Major General) with the permission of the then Nigeria President General Ibrahim Babangida.
Till date, Commonwealth Handball Association has remained the only Commonwealth sports office outside London.
