Shaibu vows to return NIS to core mandate

…Committee boss, Musa Kida promises supports

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

‎The Director General of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, has received the Musa Kida-led 32-man Advisory Committee report, promising to implement the recommendations contained in the 10-year road map for the revitalisation of Nigerian Sports.

‎Shaibu made the pledge in Abuja during the presentation of the report of the committee inaugurated in July, commending the members for their dedication and comprehensive work.

While assuring that the recommendations would not be shelved but implemented, he said: “I want to thank the chairman of the committee for this report and promise the committee that this will not be another document that will go under the table or on the shelf. We are ready to work. We will look at all the recommendations to see how we can implement them for the benefit of our country,” he said.

‎Shaibu, the immediate past deputy governor of Edo State also disclosed the composition of an implementation committee involve some of the members after the official dissolution of the advisory committee.

‎”We will be releasing a list of persons that will be the advisory council for the implementation of this document and interestingly the chairman will still head the implementation. He is not just submitting this report, although the committee is dissolved, I am setting up an advisory committee that will see to the implementation of this document.

“‎Those that have produced the document know and understand the intention of the document. When you take this document and give it to another set of people to implement, it becomes difficult or may die a natural death,” he explained.

‎The former Edo state second citizen also revealed plans to decentralise the institute by establishing offices across the six geopolitical zones, describing it as a move aimed at expanding the institute’s reach and impact.

“The six geopolitical zones will have their own NIS offices, which will be implemented soon. Our mandate is to reposition the NIS as a leading sports institute in Africa,” he noted.

‎In his remarks, the chairman of the Advisory Committee, Musa Kida, described the report as a comprehensive document designed to address the key challenges facing the institute and the growth of Sports in the country.

‎ “This document fills the gaps that have long existed in the NIS. And we sincerely hope that this report finds a little place to move the needle in the very long and big race that you are in, to revamp and revitalize the Nigerian Institute of Sports,” Kida said.