By MUHYIDEEN JIMOH

President Bola Tinubu has approved the constitution of the Board of the Nigeria Anti-Doping Agency, Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Malam Shehu Dikko, said on Thursday.

Dikko disclosed this to State House Correspondents after meeting the president at the State House, Abuja.

He said Tinubu had earlier signed the Anti-Doping Bill into law after nearly 20 years of delay.

“And now he has approved that the board of the Anti-Doping Agency of Nigeria should be constituted,” Dikko said.

He said the move met a key requirement of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and strengthened Nigeria’s clean sport status.

Dikko said the visit was to brief the president on the achievements recorded in 2025 and outline plans for 2026.

“Mr President is very happy, he’s very excited with the progress,” he said.

According to him, the commission won about 375 medals across sports in 2025.

He said the sector contributed about 1.2 per cent to GDP in the third quarter of 2025 and attracted about N50 billion in private funding.

“Last year, we induced almost about 140,000 jobs, both direct, indirect, and induced,” Dikko said.

He said the NSC was implementing the Renewed Hope initiative to reposition sports as a driver of economic growth.

Dikko said discussions with Tinubu also focused on fast-tracking sports infrastructure nationwide.

On grassroots development, he said, the commission had introduced Invited Junior Athletes at the National Sports Festival.

“We created what we call the Invited Junior Athletes as a 38th state,” he said.

He added that Intermediate Games for under-18 and under-20 athletes had been introduced, alongside collaboration with the Ministry of Education to revive school sports.

Dikko said the federations must demonstrate grassroots programmes before receiving support for international competitions.

“If you are not showing us what you are doing on the grassroots and the domestic scene, we can’t support you,” he said.

On Nigeria’s World Cup case, he said, the NSC and the Nigeria Football Federation had submitted reported breaches to FIFA.

“The relevant bodies of FIFA are dealing with it… we are confident we have a good case,” Dikko said.

He, however, said the commission was more focused on future competitions, including AFCON and WAFCON. (NAN)

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