The Director-General of the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Phillip Shaibu, has accused the Federal Government of consistently excluding the institute from national sports funding, despite record budgetary allocations to the sector in recent years.

Shaibu made the allegation on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, where he said that although funding for sports under President Bola Tinubu’s administration is the highest the sector has ever received, the National Institute of Sports was not captured in the allocation.

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“Sports funding has seen one of the highest allocations in this administration. The last budget was the highest the sports sector has ever had, but NIS was not captured in that funding, and it has been like that for decades,” he said.

He argued that the exclusion was deliberate and blamed past sports ministers and the budgeting framework for the decline of the institute.

According to him, the National Assembly should invite former sports ministers to account for their roles in what he described as the destruction of the NIS.

“I called that all the former Ministers of Sports should be called to come and account for their role in destroying NIS. It was deliberate because the budgeting system encourages consumption and does not encourage infrastructural development or maintenance,” Shaibu stated.

The NIS Director-General said the current structure of sports administration in Nigeria is flawed, stressing that government should focus on infrastructure rather than the day-to-day running of sports.

“In simple economics, government has no business in business but has business in providing enabling environments. In sports, the government has no business in the daily running of sports, but they have business in developing and building the infrastructure. That infrastructure is what the private sector will leverage on,” he said.

Shaibu revealed that when he assumed office about five months ago, he met an institute that had existed for 51 years without a clear development plan.

“I met the NIS, who is 51 years old, five months ago, without a plan, so we had to create a roadmap. Funding is a major problem, so we had to get the private sector involved,” he said.

He added that widespread frustration over Nigeria’s sports performance has discouraged private sector interest in reviving the institute.

“Everyone is tired of praying and fasting for our sports for us to win tournaments, so a lot of private sector players are interested in making NIS work,” Shaibu said.

According to him, despite inheriting a lean budget, the institute has been able to kick-start key programmes through public-private partnerships.

“I met a very lean budget, and that gave me more reason to think outside the box. With that lean budget, we’ve been able to kick-start our programmes,” he said.

Shaibu disclosed that the Abuja office of the institute, which had been inactive for decades, has been revived without direct budgetary allocation.

“We brought the Abuja office back to life with no resources. We had our first three-month coaching programme after 30 years in Abuja, and we graduated those students on December 18. The office is back and well renovated without budget and can compete with any office in Nigeria in terms of standard,” he said.

He warned that Nigeria’s sports fortunes would remain unstable unless the NIS is properly funded and functional.

“NIS is the critical sector that produces the players, the coaches, the referees. It’s the training institute for the sports ecosystem. When that system is not functioning, don’t expect anything better in Nigerian sports because the engine room for sports is not functioning,” Shaibu added. (Channels Tv)

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