Stakeholders wait on Senate as House passes Sports Commission bill

The House of Representatives yesterday passed the National Sports Commission (NSC) Bill, which provides for the governance structure of sports in the country.

Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, stakeholders in Nigerian sports have been clamouring for the act setting up the National Sports Commission to be passed into law to free the sports sector from the usual bureaucracy that has prevented it from developing to the level expected of it.

The House passed the Bill in 2010, but the Senate did not give the required assent, which would have seen it becoming a law. And then the NSC was completely scrapped by the current administration at its inception.

However, at the plenary session presided by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, the House of Representatives yesterday rekindled stakeholders’ hopes that the NSC Act would finally become a reality.

The House considered the reports of the Committee on Sports on the bill for the Act that would provide for the administration and management of Sports in Nigeria and adopted it as presented by the committee.

The bill will also take care of the modalities for the establishment of sports institutions and facilities, harness sports for development to encourage and promote drugs-free-sports and recreation in Nigeria and for related matters.

The House also considered the Committee on Sports’ report on a bill for an Act to establish an anti-doping agency for Nigeria as would “be enshrined in the World Anti-Doping Code in Accordance with the various International Standards; and for Related Matters.”

Also considered by the House was the report of the Committee on Federal Capital Territory on an act to provide for the establishment of Federal Capital Territory University of Science and Technology, Abaji, and for related matters.