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Footprints of Dare: A Minister Retooling Youth and Sports Ministry For National Growth
BY RAMON BALOGUN
August 21 2019-August 21 2020 marked an eventful year in the annals/diary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Devt. At the epicentre of these events is Mr Sunday Dare, the Hon. Minister of Youth and Sports Devt. Since his assumption of office a year ago ( and even now) the Minister has redeemed his promise of placing Youth and Sports on an even keel of development – a feat never achieved by his predecessors.
Policies and initiatives have been consistently pursued and implemented, with evidential impacts and resonating implications in both sectors (Youth and Sports).
In the youth segment, the visionary Minister crafted the DEEL initiative/ programme to engage and keep Nigerian youths busy through Digital skills in various ICT courses such as Coding, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Programming etc and the Work Experience Programme.
Policies without the will to drive implementation, as they say, is useless and pointless: This is not so, with the Youth and Sports Ministry under the watch of Mr Dare. Several engagements with corporate organizations that have bent for youth development programme led to working agreements/MoU between the Ministry and partnering entities such as IBM, AfDB, CBN, JUNIOR ACHIEVERS, WILLCO GROUP, NESTLE, MTN, GOOGLE.
These Partnerships plus it’s hanging fruits birthed 10,000 Nigerian Youths that were trained in 25 courses by the IBM; $100MN worth of support from the AfDB for DEEL implementation; inclusive of other bouquet programmes such as Coding for employment.
Worth mentioning in this eventful year is the new status of the Ministry as an Entrepreneurial Development Institution (EDI) courtesy CBNs approval; as a training centre across the six Geopolitical zones, meant to enhance the capacity of our youths to apply and secure the COVID-19 loan facility for Entrepreneurship under the auspices of the CBN.
Another spectacular shift programme that signpost deliberate investment in our youth is the recent Presidential approval for the establishment of Nigeria Youth Investment Fund( NYIF), an initiative of Sunday Dare. Typical of this administration’s commitment to harnessing the great potentials of our youths for national development, the objective of NYIF is to fund innovativeness, ideas, skills, and talents of the youths for business enterprise.
Structures or machinery for its implementation are already in motion-the Minister has inaugurated Focal Group and Inter-Ministerial Technical Committees-for this purpose. In a short while, the youths with fundable ideas would realize that their dreams and ideas would come to fruition under this administration. It is pertinent to state at this juncture, that a minimum of N25bn would be provided by this administration in the next 3years, totalling N75bn, to ringfence the NYIF. That is, it would strictly cater to the investment needs of persons between the ages of 18 and 35 years old.
Similar zeal for innovative ideas and the will to implement by the Youth and Sports Minister is also at play in the Sports segment. Within the dateline of an eventful one year of Sunday Dare in Office; policies and programmes that have brought hope of restoring our glories in Sports include the Adopt Initiative, Sports Industry Policy, reclassification of Sports as Business- no longer recreation, grassroots sports Devt. programme/ talent hunt programme, welfare packages for living and ex-internationals (players and athletes).
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Dikko And The New Vision Accountability and Development in Sports
Felly Mammah N.
Since the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhaji Shehu Dikko assumed office on the 30th of October, 2024, he has systematically and deliberately been putting in place structures that would result to proper development of sports in Nigeria. Shortly after he was first appointed by President Bola Tinubu as a leading strength of sports, the Director General (DG), Hon. Bukola Olapade was appointed to compliment his efforts.
Many sports analysts believe that the duo of Dikko and Olapade who have been very visible in sports administration will be one of the best combination to take the sports sector to the next level. The DG no doubt, is the head of administration in the Commission, but it should be noted that the financial enablement to manage the affairs of staff and the political might that shops for the finance needed in the running of the sector rest on the Chairman who has the task of liaising with the President directly.
It is also, worthy to note that there is a huge difference between the administration of in the Civil Service as it is controlled by a Permanent Secretary and Directors while the administration of a Commission involves Board Members and experts whose voices and actions are also, game-changing; more so as Commissioners are likely going to take charge of the different zones to proffer solutions for a way forward. The defunct Ministry of Youths and Sports Development which later in 2023 metamorphosed into the Ministry of Sports Development on the assumption of President Bola Tinubu, produced a minister who was not versed in sports administration and as a result, faced mass criticism especially from men of the media.
These men of the pen profession are the torchlight of global sporting activity; they equally keep the history of both sports participation globally as well as the records of athletes’ performances. Their torchlight on past Minister’s and particularly the recent past, have revealed that most of the people who presided over sports administration do not really have any knowledge of the sector before their appointment.
The exit of the immediate past Minister, Sen. John Owan Enoh, refreshingly paved the way for change and this has brought in sports personnels that are expected to place sporting activities in the digital world. Suffice it to also, say that the new management of Sports Commission in parts of her changes is expected to sanitize athletes’ attitude and character for better reflection of children who have seen and communicated with their peers in the Western world.
However, the clarion call for President Tinubu to remove politics in sports may have changed the leadership of sports going by what many sports fans saw in the last outing of both Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, where a country like Nigeria did not measure up to her potentials.
Despite the poor performance of atheletes during the World Olympics Games, the past immediate past Minister deserves to be commended that during his tenure, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Games was reawakened as the participation of our Super Eagles brought back hope and jubilation to sports fans including the President and higher authorities. Yes whopping sum of N12 Billion was released two weeks to the Olympics Games and at a time the country was not financially stable. Despite the presidential financial support, the medals presented to the country were crisis and ignorant of both the atheletes, Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Atheletic Federaton to do the needful.
Therefore, it is heart-warming that the President harkened to the appeal of his fellow sports lovers to handpick a known figure in the sports arena to share his wealth of experience that gave him both a name in Sports and positions as the former Chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Chairman League Management Company (LMC), FIFA match Commissioner of significance, 2nd Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and presently, CAF Committee Member, in addition to his new portfolio as Chairman NSC.
My reference point here is that Alh. Dikko has been given the authority to effect positive change in sports sector, co-ordinate over 40 Sports Federations in the sector, welcome ideas of both sports stakeholders, individuals and veterans of sports that will enable him x-ray the reasons for poor performances in the sector and to chat a way forward for success story. There can never be a new testament without an old testament, thus the reason Alh. Dikko’s doors have remained opened to receive courtesy calls that included the visits by past administrators and foreigners who want to facilitate with whom the cap fits.
Still, in the mood of celebration to formally welcome Alh. Dikko to office was the peculiar power of sports which gathered momentum and the crowd for happy moments as seen in the recent novelty match organized by his friends, associates and sports veterans at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja recently. That gathering clearly announced not just a man who has made a name for himself at a height in global political decision making in sports circle, but a man who has also, given voice to our country’s leagues and international activities.
Sports is a significant sector that comprises emotion, tension, happiness, sadness even death and hope irrespective of the fact that it has the potential to feed many mouths. The sector cannot be compared to other Ministries with delayed bureaucracies and frustration of abilities. While in the civil service the head will rather submerge a growing talent for fear of power thrown, a coach who discovers a talent takes the credit for showcasing a star athelete discovered. Sports has been proven to generate revenue as well as attract public partnership which are all aimed at enhancing podium performance by the athletes.
Shehu Dikko’s business vision and wide participation in football contributed in making him the right candidate to place the sector in its expected level, increase the GDP of the country’s economy and equally be accountable with administrative roadmap for success.
The novelty match organised for him by his sports fans and League managers had the likes of Samson Siasia, Victor Ikpeba, Mutiu Adepoju, Dominic Iorfa, Ahmed Musa in attendance to share their joy with him as they displayed their talent with their foot.
Others that graced the occasion were Super Sports General Manager, Felix Nwogu, former and present Chairmen of House Committee on Sports, NFF President, NOC members and persons from across the globe. That singular act indicated a clear fact that Dikko can actually gather momentum with persons that can support his ideology to deliver as charged by the presidency.
However, the Chairman’s meekness to open his doors to all does not mean weakness neither does it mean that he has not commenced work officially. His work is more of brain tasking because ideas actually rule the world. I will boldly say that he has resumed work with like minds that will not only be on the same page with him but will as well be on success Guinness Book with him.
Felly Mammah N.
Press Officer (NSC).
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