NSC lists impact of access to Tinubu on sports development

The National Sports Commission (NSC) believes that the direct access it has to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would enhance its efforts to rejuvenate the country’s sports sector.

The NSC, led by its Chairman, Shehu Dikko, held a meeting with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa at the weekend with the body intimating the president its efforts to ensure that the country reclaimed its position among the top sporting nations of the world.

Also in the delegation were NSC’s Director-General, Bukola Olopade, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Grassroots Sports Development, Adeboye Adeyinka.

Dikko said the meeting with the president has given impetus to the Commission’s unflinching resolve to move Nigerian sports from consumption to production.

“The president is very keen to do whatever is needed to drive the process. For us to create the sports economy we are working on, he has to be the number one driver and be the one on the driving seat, while we, the professionals, are providing the advice and the process.”

Dikko said the NSC as currently empowered has no reason to fail in its duties.

“We have put our hearts and minds into it so we will do it. We cannot afford to fail Mr. President because he gave us the right support and everything that is needed,” he said.

The NSC chairman said that the current setting bodes well for sports development, adding: “The meeting we had with Mr President yesterday is what the Sports Commission is actually meant to be. You have direct access. He is aware of everything that is going on and puts his own suggestions and opinions.

“You submit your memos directly to the president. After the meeting yesterday, we submitted about four, five memos capturing many activities that we feel should be done. He will take his time to study them and of course there is a process for approval, but that has cut off the bureaucracy for sports.”

Dikko said that part of the long-term plans is to make these meetings either biweekly or bimonthly, “where we will sit down with Mr President and discuss. It makes things easier for everybody. This is not a mere handshake; it is a proper meeting where you sit down for quite some time and have a decent conversation with Mr President. We were in the Villa from 3.00 p.m. until 7.00 p.m.”

He said that the NSC leadership, among other things, tabled before the president the forthcoming National Sports Festival and the World Cup qualifiers, as well as the promises made to the Super Eagles to ginger them to success in the just-concluded African Cup of Nations qualifiers and the World Cup qualifiers, which will resume next year.