National Sports Commission returns as FG scraps Sports Ministry
24 October 2024 |
4:02 am
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday, scrapped the Federal Ministry of Sports Development and replaced it with the National Sports Commission (NSC). Tinubu announced the scrapping of the sports ministry alongside four others in a mini-cabinet rejig, yesterday.
Shehu Dikko heads new NSC board; Enoh reassigned
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday, scrapped the Federal Ministry of Sports Development and replaced it with the National Sports Commission (NSC). Tinubu announced the scrapping of the sports ministry alongside four others in a mini-cabinet rejig, yesterday.
The returned NSC has as its chairman, a former Second Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mallam Shehu Dikko. In a statement on the restructuring of ministries and ministerial portfolios, Tinubu reassigned the immediate past sports minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, as the Minister of State Trade and Investment (Industry).
Yesterday’s development, according to the Federal Government, is part of the “immediate implementation of eight far-reaching actions approved by the president to reinvigorate the administration’s capacity for optimal efficiency under his commitment to deliver on his promises to Nigerians.”
Following the announcement, the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a tweet, said that the decision was reached during the FEC meeting, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
“The responsibilities previously held by the Ministry of Sports Development will now be transferred to the National Sports Commission, which will take charge of sports-related activities in Nigeria. The National Sports Commission will take over the role of the Ministry of Sports,” he stated.
Since the NSC was scrapped by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in 2015, which replaced it with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, stakeholders have been clamouring for a return to the old governance structure, which is normally manned by technocrats in sports development, instead of politicians that dominate the Sports Ministry.
Bearing his mind on the new order yesterday, a former 400m runner, Dr. Okorie Henry Chinedu, described President Tinubu’s decision as the best step taken by this administration.
“It will lead to better policies that would ensure that federations get the best hands to pilot their affairs, and source sponsorships that will complement government funding,” Okorie said.
The Athletes Representative in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), who is in Jos attending the 60th yearly congress of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, said: “I was overwhelmed with joy over the return of the National Sports Commission. The Sports Ministry has held national sports federations hostage through bureaucratic bottlenecks and encouraged secretaries general of federations to act with impunity, and without prudence.
According to Okorie, Tinubu’s decision to scrap the ministry will lead to better policies on how to ensure that federations get the best hands to pilot their affairs and source sponsorships that will complement government funding.
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