Mallam Sheu Dikko has officially begun the reign as the Chairman of the revamped National Sports Commission after former Minister of the defunct Ministry of Sports Development, Senator Joseph Enoh Officially bowed out of Nigeria Sports in a hand over ceremony which took place in Abuja on Wednesday, Sports247 reports .
In the brief ceremony earlier in the day on Wednesday 30 October 2024, Sheu Dikko stated that the objective of President Tinubu is to be able to measure our sports growth from the numbers the sector Is contributing to the nation’s GDP as the full potential of sports as a business must be harvested.
Below is a part of Sheu Dikko’s first statement as he took over Nigeria sports after President Ahmed Bola Tinubu replaced the Ministry of Sports Development by restoring the National Sports Commission earlier in the month.
” History has a way of coming full circle because in 2008 I was a consultant to the House of Representatives and was responsible for the drafting of the National Sports Commission bill and about 16 years down the line i have here with the assignment to implement the work i put together”.
” The objective of Mr President is to earnest the full potential of the Sports Economy in Nigeria”.
” And we have to first change our mindset from the fixation of just competitions and winning medals and come back and fix our Sports Development”.
” When we set the foundation right the results and the winning of medals will naturally come and that should be the new mindset”.
” We cannot continue to run in cycle so we need to have a different approach from day one because in my view and in the view of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, competitions is what we call Consumption”
” But we have to go back to Production which is Sports Development, where we set the structure right, set the framework and put together good parameters to have a sustainable Sports Development which will naturally give us a solid Economy.
” This is the reason why our administration will be focused on three Pillars including running Sports as an National Asset, that is entitled to special privileges, regulations and concessions”.
” We have to also work on Foundations and Regulations so that the Industry can grow effectively like what happened in the communications industry some years back”.
” The other Pillar is investing in purposeful world class infrastructures that will provide an enabling environment for Growth. These infrastructures must be deliberate with maintenance culture”.
” The thinking of Mr President is that , after having some all these in place we should be able to measure the Country’s Sports by its contribution to the nation’s GDP by at least three percent in the next four to five years”.
The 9th National Assembly had in 2017, passed a bill to reintroduce the commission in place of the ministry.
The bill essentially seeks to establish the National Sports Commission to be charged with the responsibilities of administering, co-ordinating, encouraging and developing sports and games among other functions throughout Nigeria.
According to the provisions of the bill, the commission must have a board made up of the following:
(a) The chairman and CEO.
(b) A Director-General
(c) NOC President
(d)Representatives of Collegiate Sports
(e)The president of the National Association of Women In Sports
(f) Representatives of Six Sports zones and three members from the private sector among others.
But the bill was never accented by former President Mohammadu Buhari before he exited the office and President Bola Tinubu needed to sign the bill into law as a matter of urgency to give legal backing to the commission for easy actualisation of the basic objectives of the commission.
