Joel Ajayi 

The newly appointed Chairman of National Sports Commision Malam Shehu Dikko on  Wednesday officially assumed office unveiled 3 Pillars to growth sport sector.

Just last week President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Shehu Dikko as Chairman of the National Sports Commission.

Speaking shortly in Abuja after outgoing Minister of Sports Senator John Enoh officially handed over the affairs of the Country’s Sports to him in a brief ceremony in Abuja.

He expressed that the Country’s journey towards a sustainable Sports Economy has begun.

According to him, 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 assisted to put together”.

“The objective of Mr President is to harness   the full potentials 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 Domestic Sports Development”.

“When we set the foundation right the results and the winning of medals will naturally come in a sustainable manner and that should be the new mindset”.

“We cannot continue to run in cycles so we need to have a different approach from day one because in my view and indeed the view of President  Bola Ahmed Tinubu, competitions is what we call  “Consumption” because we just take scarce resources and burn out abroad without any impact on the domestic sports development and the Nigerian Economy.

“But we have to go back to “Production” which is deliberate  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 Sports Economy and indeed guaranteed competitive participation at all competitions and medals.

“This is the reason why our administration will be focus  on three Pillars including running Sports as a National Asset, that is entitled to special privileges, regulations and concessions to drive growth and development to open its potentials to be a key driver of the economy across all sectors, a vehicle  for achieving national cohesion and projection of the positive and unique attributes of our culture and national identity “.

” We have to also work on Legislations and Regulations so as to set the framework to enable the Industry to 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 and span from world class infrastructure for professional sports to community infrastructure to drive grassroots sports and mass participation across the country.

” The thinking of Mr President is  that , after  having some of 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 and the number of jobs  sports and its value chain are providing in country in the next  four to five years and indeed our competitiveness across all competitions and tournaments.

Thus it’s a fantastic decision for Mr. President to approve the return of the National Sports Comission to drive the process and objectives in line to the best international practices and standards devoid of any beureucratic bottlenecks but absolute professionalism.”

In his remark, the outgoing Sportst Minister Senator John Enoh expressed: “For me it’s farewell, it’s bye bye and for mallam shehu Dikko it’s welcome that is what life is all about, there is time for everything.

He however thumbed president Tinubu for scrapping Sports Ministry and bring back the NSC to enable sports to grow in the country, saying that the decision remain a great positive that will grow Sports.

On his remark, the most senior staff of the ministry, Director of Medicine Paul Onyedo pledged staff support to work with incoming Chairman to the best of their ability. “We are ready to give our best.”

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