Despite record budgetary allocations to the sector in recent years, Phillip Shaibu, the director-general of the National Institute of Sports (NIS), has accused the Federal Government of consistently excluding the institute from national sports funding.
Shaibu made the claim on the National Institute of Sports’ claim on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program on Monday, saying that despite the highest level of funding for sports under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the allocation did not include the National Institute of Sports.
One of the highest allocations for sports funding has been made by this administration. The sports sector’s most recent budget had the highest ever budget, but NIS was not included in that funding, which he claimed has done for decades.
He claimed that the institute’s decline was caused by deliberate exclusion and that previous sports ministers and the budgetary framework.
He argued that the National Assembly should hold former sports ministers accountable for their roles in the NIS’s destruction.
“I requested that all former sports ministers be called in to apologize for their contribution to the destruction of NIS. The budgeting process encourages consumption but does not promote maintenance or infrastructural development, according to Shaibu.
The current sports administration in Nigeria, according to the NIS Director-General, is flawed, and the government should concentrate more on infrastructure than on running the sport.
Government has no business in business, according to simple economics, but it does so by creating enabling environments. The government has a business in developing and building infrastructure, but it has no business in running a sport. The private sector will profit from that infrastructure, he said.
Shaibu revealed that he first met an institute that had been around for 51 years without a detailed development plan when he took office about five months ago.
Without a plan, the NIS, who is 51 years old, requested that we create a roadmap. We needed to involve the private sector because funding is a significant issue, he said.
He added that private sector interest in restoring the institute has been stifled by the country’s high level of resentment toward the country’s sports performance.
Many private sector players are interested in making NIS work, according to Shaibu, because everyone is tired of praying and fasting for our sports to win tournaments.
The institute has been able to launch important programmes through public-private partnerships, he claims, despite having a limited budget.
I had more reason to think creatively when I met my lean budget. We were able to launch our programs with that tight budget, he said.
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Shaibu disclosed that the institute’s Abuja office, which had been shut down for decades, has been reopened without receiving a direct budget.
Without any resources, we restored the Abuja office. After 30 years in Abuja, we had our first three-month coaching program, and on December 18, we graduated those participants. Without having a budget, the office is back and has been adequately renovated, he said.
Without the NIS’s adequate funding and operation, Nigeria’s sports fortunes would continue to suffer.
Source: Channels TV
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