Return of Sports Commission: The bad in Tinubu’s good intentions
By Fan Ndubuoke
For a long time, Nigerian sports has been in the wilderness. The frequent changes in name and nomenclature since 1962 have not led to the expected Promised Land. The question is; what really is in a name?
In our clime, there is this superstition or notion that names carry huge influence and impact on whoever or whatever bears it. We attach a whole lot of importance on names yet take our eyes off factors attracting failures to people, positions or establishments.
A carnivore doesn’t feed on grasses, herbs or plants…but if allowed or coerced to live or dwell strictly in a garden, it cannot be better than a goat in its feeding habits. It won’t or doesn’t matter if you named it a lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah or hyena.
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Our sports can only be as good as those who run the show or as good as the environment in which it operates. Unfortunately, all the three roadblocks to Nigeria’s progress are so evident in our stunted growth in sports, namely; ethnicity, religion and corruption. Their common denominator is mediocrity.
A good example of how much we have retarded is our performance at the last Olympic Games in France where the Nigerian contingent returned with zero medals after squandering billions of naira. Nobody has been held responsible for all the scandals and embarrassments that emanated from the Nigerian camp, including failure to register an athlete for her event.
It is possible that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must have been equally embarrassed so much that he decided to scrap the Ministry of Sports Development and redeployed the former minister to Ministry of Investment as Minister of State which is a junior portfolio and a clear demotion. Mr. President was just whiskers away from sacking Senator John Owan Enoh outright but perhaps some considerations and power play served as a cliff for the Minister to hang on to.
However, the official reason given for returning the National Sports Commission was not poor performance but the need to grow sports as business.
The clamour for the return of the commission has been long and consistent aimed at removing ministerial bureaucracy. Those in the know identify administration as the clog in the wheel of progress, especially under the ministry as more often than not, rookies are assigned as sports ministers for political patronage. Ordinarily, return of Sports Commission is to separate sports from politics and enthrone professionalism in the sector.
Instructively, the 9th National Assembly had in 2017, passed a bill to reintroduce the commission in place of the ministry. But the bill was never assented to by former President Buhari.
The bill essentially seeks to establish the National Sports Commission to be charged with the responsibilities of administering, coordinating, encouraging and developing sports and games among other functions throughout Nigeria.
Interestingly, the commission was designed to have a board made up of the following:
(a) The minister who shall be the chairman and CEO.
(b) A Director-General
(c) NOC President
(d) Representatives of Collegiate Sports
(e) The president of National Association of Women in sports
(f) Representatives of Six Sports zones and three members from the private sector among others.
Here’s the crux of the matter. Since the bill passed by the National Assembly in 2017 was not assented to by the former president, can President Tinubu create a Sports Commission by mere pronouncement?
If it was assented to, who are the other members of the board apart from my good friend, Alhaji Shehu Dikko. Lovers of sports and good governance will agree with the president that he has good intentions, but the bad news is that there is no legally established agency known as Sports Commission in place. This is a sort of reminder to stakeholders of the endless bickering over the legitimacy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) given that Decree 101 which established the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has not been set aside by any known bill or law. Litigations over this matter has ended in Court decisions favouring those hammering on legality or legitimacy of power.
The return of the commission is a welcome development but the president should first assent to the bill gathering dust somewhere in Aso Rock and properly constitute the board, otherwise we will be dealing with one-man illegal Sports Commission.
- Fan Ndubuoke is former national president, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria; former Board member-NFF; erstwhile Secretary General, Africa Sports Journalists Union, SA to former Sports Minister, late Air Cmdr. Emeka Omeruah; and former chairman, Imo State Sports Commission.