Kelechi Mejuobi, the Special Adviser to the Minister of State for Education, Rt Hon Goodluck Nanah Opiah, has been elected Deputy President of the Nigeria Football Referees Association NRA.
He was elected alongside other 13 officers during the Quadrennial Delegate Conference of the Association at the Bovina Hotels, Ilorin, Kwara State.
After obtaining his Grade Three certificate in 1995, after Referee in Training, RIT stages, he had Grade Two and Grade One in 1998 and 2000 respectively as a member of the Lagos State council.
Subsequently, from 2001 he officiated National Amateur League now known as Nationwide League and in 2003 became a Pro League referee now Nigeria National League, NNL.
In 2006 football season, he was promoted and officiated the Nigeria Premier League and had enough years in that cadre before retirement in 2012. Within that period as an active referee he was invited and took part in three FIFA Listing exercises of 2006,2007 and 2008.
After retirement, Mejuobi who had transferred his NRA membership to the Imo State Referees Council, from Lagos State council vied for the National Publicity Secretary position in 2015 and was elected. Between 2015 to 2019, Mejuobi deployed his tactical finesse on information management and dissemination that made him to be returned unopposed in 2019 for a second term. More so, his exploits in the use of social media appurtenances in redefining the image and integrity of the NRA became a paradigm shift in the way of information dissemination in the association.
After two tenures as spokesperson of the NRA, the ovation became loud for him to continue in the referee administration system. On Saturday evening he was elected the Deputy President of the NRA scoring 43 votes to defeat his main challenger, Mr Dave Igho who had 10 votes.
