NIS’ poor condition should worry stakeholders, says Adelabu

Former Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu, has said that stakeholders should feel concerned about the National Institute for Sports’ (NIS) lack of capacity for advanced sport research to sustain and build on Nigeria’s successes in both national and international competitions.
   
“The NIS was established to be the centre of sports development, tasked with the responsibilities of educating coaches, sports managers, administrators, and policymakers. But how far it has fulfilled these objectives is of serious concern,” Adelabu said yesterday.

The sports scientist lamented that the NIS qualifications and certification across coaching, management, and allied sports professions are not reflected in the management and performance indexes across the board.
 
He said: “No one knows what they are doing and the pedigree of the people in charge. It is expected that they would play leading roles in fostering holistic development among sports practitioners.

“It was also expected that anyone, who would be involved in sports administration in the country, should be indoctrinated with our national objectives for sport development through NIS. I have not heard about the NIS organising any form of seminars, publications, or broader programmatic initiatives.
  
“These are some of the responsibilities bestowed on NIS as an institution under its vision to be a ‘world-class tertiary institution for sports dedicated to high performance through evidence-based teaching and research,” he said, adding: “We have to embrace accountability in all areas of our sport institutions.”