Commodore Omatseye Nesiama (retd) has been appointed by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 13th African Games as one of the referees to officiate at the athletics events of the African Games that is billed to begin Friday, 8 March 2024 to Sunday, 24 March 2024, in Accra, Ghana.

Nesiama, who ran for Delta South senatorial district in the 2023 general elections on the platform of the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) and is a former Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Technical Director said he is excited about the appointment and promised to give it his best.

“I am quite happy about the recognition and nomination by the CAA. I will do my best to discharge my duties in the areas I am assigned to and attract more accolades to Nigeria,” he said, adding further that he also believes that the appointment would inspire more athletic lovers to take up technical officiating.

The former AFN technical director was also appointed to train the Ghanaian Technical Officials in preparation for the Africa Games.

Before his appointment, Nesiama was among the highest graded technical officials in Africa, having attained the World Athletics Silver level status, and thereafter appointed into the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Technical Officials Panel in 2017.

Nesiama proved his mettle as a Technical Official of repute at continental competitions including the Africa U-18, U-20 and the Senior Athletics Championship, at different times.

He was the competition director for the first ever Africa Youth Championships (U-18) that held in Warri, Delta State, in 2013.

Nesiama is on record to be the first Nigerian to have passed the qualifying examination to be licensed as a World Athletics Athletes’ Representative.

He is a World Athletics certified technical officials’ lecturer and has been a member of the CAA Technical and Competitions Commission since 2014.

Organized by the African Union (AU) in collaboration with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC), the African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event that is held every four years in the continent of Africa.

#penglobalcommunity