Nigerian sports will continue to stutter if the Federal Government refuses to tinker with its administrative structure, former national president of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Fan Ndubuoke, has said.

Ndubuoke described the National Sports Commission (NSC), as currently constituted, as a Ponzi structure of sports administration.

Presenting his paper titled: “The Burden of Finding A Balance Between Patriotism and Professionalism,” at a workshop organised by Imo SWAN in Owerri on Tuesday, Ndubuoke said that the NSC has operated without a firm legal grounding, hence they are illegally constituted.

He said: “The NSC functions more as administrative improvisations than as statutory institutions with clear mandates, defined powers, and enforceable accountability”.

The former chairman of the Imo State Sports Commission accused the Nigerian government of changing names and structures without answering the fundamental questions concerning the legal foundation of sports governance.”

He regretted that in a situation where an institution lacks legal clarity, it becomes an easy tool for manipulation.

“Policies shift with political winds, appointments are made on sentiment, funds are spent without oversight,” he said, noting with dismay that money flows from government budgets into the hands of a small circle of officials and their allies, while very little reaches athletes, coaches or is used for grassroots programmes.

While reminding the media of its traditional role to inform, educate, and entertain, the former SWAN president urged journalists to always navigate a terrain littered with obstacles, ownership interests, draconian state laws, safety concerns, hostile working conditions, as well as the threat of intimidation.

He identified one of the damaging causes of the decline in creativity in sports journalism as a shift from personal excellence to political patronage.