Nigeria’s journey towards viable sports economy has started, says Dikko

The newly-appointed Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Shehu Dikko, yesterday, said that the country has started a journey towards a sustainable Sports Economy.

Speaking in Abuja during the official handover of the NSC to him by the immediate past Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, Mallam Dikko said: “History has a way of coming full cycle because in 2008, I was a consultant to the House of Representatives and was responsible for the drafting of the NSC Bill, a job I did pro-bono and about 16 years down the line, I am here with the assignment to implement the work I assisted to put together.”

He said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to harness the full potential of the country’s sports economy, and urged all stakeholders to be ready to join in repositioning the sector.
He added: “When we set the foundation right the results and the winning of medals will naturally come in a sustainable manner and that should be the new mindset.

“We cannot continue to run in cycles; so we need to have a different approach from day one because in my view and indeed the firm view of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, competition is what we call  “consumption” because we just take scarce resources abroad without any impact on the domestic sports development ecosystem and the Nigerian economy.”

He called on all stakeholders to be ready to start “production,” which he described as a deliberate sports development programme that will set the structure right, set the framework, and put together good parameters to have a sustainable sports development template.

“This is the reason why our administration will focus on three pillars, including running sports as a national asset that is entitled to special privileges, regulations and