The decision by the Federal Government to bring back the National Sports Commission (NSC) was received with jubilation by stakeholders in Nigerian sports. This is understandable as the stakeholders have watched agonisingly as the country stumbled from one failure to another in international sports competitions for over nine years, despite the availability of highly multitalented Nigerians in various departments of sports. This fact is easily discerned from the large number of Nigerians making waves for other countries, as demonstrated even in the last Olympics. The task before the new NSC is herculean; it will include not just steering Nigeria back into winning ways that the country was once noted for, but also to re-stimulate the interest of Nigerians in sports and galvanise the huge business potential in that sector. Surely the sports sector alone can make a substantial difference in lifting the country’s economy and impacting hugely and positively on individual’s standard of living.

Apart from the occasional successes by the national football teams, which are managed semi-independently by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Nigerian sports under the now scrapped Federal Ministry of Sports had been floundering for so long that many, who knew how the sector fared under the NSC regime, clamoured for a return to the past. The outcry became more deafening each time the country returned from an international competition without medals, as exemplified by the recent Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The argument for a return to the NSC model of administration was hinged on the fact that the NSC model is manned by professionals in various fields of sports, who are not given to extraneous considerations in running the sector. The NSC system, according to its protagonists, gives room for more robust designs and rigorous evaluation of programmes, eliminates the red tapes of the ministry system and challenges its leadership to creativity and resourcefulness, with their sustenance anchored on the principle of performance.

The National Sports Commission system also employs a pseudo-corporate management system, requiring less politics, clear professional approach to operations and constructive actions for the delivery of targets and goals, as against the ministry system in which the authorities feel no challenge because they have nothing to lose in whatever situation.

Unlike the ministry system, which gives the minister so much powers, including influencing and/or appointing boards for the various federations, the NSC allows for democratically-elected boards to control the federations and reduce the manipulations by those with access to top government officials.

However, the National Sports Commission (NSC) cannot succeed in lifting the country’s sports in isolation. Producing top class athletes and future world champions requires proper institutionalisation of the NSC with the appropriate mandate to change the sector.

Peopled by specialists in the various segments of sports development, an NSC with clear mandate and the needed personnel will likely fast-track a sustained production of champion athletes deriving from the expected outcomes from the application of knowledge in key areas of programme management, sports medicine, deployment of funds and engagement of available facilities.

Still, there are those who believe that the NSC cannot become the magic vehicle many expect it to be if the only thing that changes is the name from Ministry of Sports to NSC. These are people who believe that the frequent changes in name and nomenclature since 1962 have not led to the expected Promised Land.

The belief Is that Nigerian sports can only be as good as those who run it and the environment in which it operates. They believe that giving qualified people opportunity to run the show without recourse to ethnicity, religion and/or political affiliation will ensure that the country regains its place in the comity of sporting nations.

It Is instructive that the Federal Government decided to change from the ministry system to the NSC because it wants to grow sports as business. By extension, it is expected that government will take into consideration the peculiar needs of the sector in choosing the leadership of the Commission.

Already, the government has started on the right footing by choosing Mallam Shehu Dikko as chairman of the commission with Bukola Olapade as the director general. These gentlemen have shown over the years in their various engagements that they are capable of running the commission.

While Dikko is a former Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and chairman of the League Management Company, which managed the Nigerian Premier Football League (NPFL), Olapade was once a commissioner for sports in Ogun State. He metamorphosed into one of the biggest sports marketers in the country, with the famed Access Bank Lagos City Marathon one of his signature projects. It is therefore safe to presume that the NSC is in the right hands. But the duo cannot operate in isolation.

To actualise the dreams of the Federal Government, the first step in making the NSC virile is by removing the bureaucratic bottleneck that usually ensure that programmes are not executed as projected. So, ensuring that all the departments of the commission are manned by experts who know the importance of doing things as at when due should be one of the first things needed to empower the NSC to effectiveness. The idea is to separate sports from politics and enthrone professionalism in the sector.

The success of the NSC at sustainably achieving its mandate depends on essentially the aggregate of inputs from all its affiliate institutions whose contributions largely determine the type of results the country achieves at international competitions. These institutions include the states’ ministries of sports, schools, the military, police para-military agencies and Diaspora Nigerians.

More importantly, the number of professional sports officers must be, at least, 70 per cent of the staff strength of the NSC to make for effective management of the body. (The Guardian Editorial)