Our resolve to reposition Nigerian sports total – Shaibu 

• Pledges to implement committee’s recommendations

By Jude Opara, Abuja

The Director General of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, has said that his resolution to reposition sports in the country is total and uncompromising.

Comrade Shaibu made the pledge on Tuesday while receiving the report of the Ahmed Musa Kida-led 32-man Advisory Committee which submitted its recommendations at NIS headquarters in Abuja.

The DG who commended the committee for its dedication and comprehensive work also assured that every necessary effort would be put in to implement the recommendations to the letter.

The former deputy governor of Edo state further revealed that the NIS has developed a 10-year Road Map for the total revitalisation of sports in Nigeria.

He said, “I want to thank the chairman of the committee for this report and to assure the chairman and the committee that this will not be another document that will go under the table or on the shelf. We are ready to work and we will look at all the recommendations and we’ll see how we can implement them for the benefit of our country.”

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The NIS boss while announcing dissolution of the the Advisory Committee, equally announced the creation of an Implementation Committee would some members of the Advisory committee as members.

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‎”We will be releasing a list of persons that will be the advisory council for the implementation of this document and interestingly the Chairman will still head the implementation. He is not just submitting this report, although the committee is dissolved but I’m setting up a Committee that will see to the implementation of this document.

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‎”Those that have produced the document know and understand the intention of the document. When you take this document and give it to another set of people to implement it becomes difficult or may die a natural death”.

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‎Shaibu also revealed the plans to decentralise the NIS by establishing zonal offices across the six geopolitical zones, a move he said was aimed at expanding the institute’s reach and impact.

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In his remarks, the Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Engr. Musa Kida, described the report as a comprehensive document designed to address the key challenges facing the NIS and the growth of Sports in the country.

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‎He said that the document will fill the gaps that have long existed in the Institute, which he described as the ‘factory’ that should produce the best of sports men and women in all categories.