Clement Nwankpa Jr
To actualize the mandate by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pertaining to sports development and sports economy, National Sports Commision Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko on Tuesday listed three Rs serving as pillars upon which this mandate will be activated.
He was speaking during the Commission’s meeting with the Presidents and Secretaries of Sports
Federations. Here are the pillars…
RESET
A call to change our perception and way of reasoning in the sector.
He said, “We need to reset our thinking from this obsession for competitions and medals to development. We have to note that sports development comes before competitions which breed the medals. It is from that concerted grassroots development of a sport that you discover talents that will be showcased in those competitions. When a sport is well-developed from the grassroots, to elite Levels, podium performance comes naturally. But the mistake we make is that we put the competitions first which is basically consumption before the development which is productive We are going to do it differently by resetting from consumption-driven sports ecosystem to a production-driven sports ecosystem which means that Development comes first before competitions. So we need to reset our minds because we have dwelt on this mindset for so long. The media should help us reset the minds of the public. We all have to reason alike and be on the same page.
“REFOCUS
A call to channel all our attention in one direction to achieve our set goals.
His words, “We have to be deliberate in what we have to do. From the private to the public sector, everyone has to agree that sports is our national asset. There has to be that singularity in purpose. We have to set lofty goals and follow them through, but we have to work on the legislation and other enabling framework to actualize our plans. And, in this regard, we have several action points we would be activating, such as our zonal and state offices have to be functional. We at the center will only be regulators. The main job should be done down there in the zones.
“National Sports Development Fund will help us to create sustainable funding. Once this is done, once we get the funding right, I keep saying, 80 percent of our sporting problems are solved.
“Infrastructure is key. So, we are working to have at least one functional stadium in each of the six geopolitical zones. The fact that we have only one international-standard stadium in the country is embarrassing. If Uyo becomes malfunctional today, we are in trouble. It means we have to play our matches outside Nigeria. God forbid! We have to work in the long term along with the sub nationals to ensure every community has some form of functional sports facility to keep them busy and provide a platform to give them hope for the future. To drive this, we would set up a National Sports Infrastructure Development and Management Board to professionally drive the process
“We have to work on the national arbitration board so as to reduce sports litigations that mitigate the development we are pushing for.
“We have to be deliberate on the issue of talent identification. That is the core of the development we are talking about, Our conveyor belt for talents has to be strengthened.
“Come to think of it, do you know that there is a section in the NBC code that seeks to protect the interest of sports? But we have not been able to take advantage because we are focused on competitions.”
RELAUNCH
A call to, ultimately, enter action with boldness, having factored in the earlier two Rs.
His words, “When we have reset our minds and stayed focused on our goal, it is much easier to launch action. When we know what we want to do and identify how we will go about it, the result is guaranteed. We want to do things differently because we want to get a different result from what we used to get in the past. If we continue doing it the same way, we will continue this cycle of pyrrhic victories and unsustained strides. We are relaunching in that direction where the future will be assured for our sports. This is why we are saying that before we support you (Sports Federations) in any international tournament, you have to show us evidence of domestic development of the sport. If you do that, you should be able to even attract international tournaments to the country.”
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