The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Sports (NIS), Philip Shaibu, says the future of the institution lies in a robust public-private partnership model and a total structural reset.
Shaibu said this in Abuja on Tuesday night at a reception organised in his honour by former colleagues from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
He noted that his appointment by President Bola Tinubu came with a clear mandate to reform the NIS and revive the institute to its original vision of producing world-class coaches and sports professionals.
“My mandate by Mr President is to go and carry out total reform and to reposition the NIS to its core mandate of producing excellent coaches for Nigeria and Africa,” he said.
The NIS DG who was a deputy governor in Edo and ex-member of the House of Representatives, said the institute had derailed from its foundational purpose.
Shaibu explained that the derailment was evident in the dilapidation of core facilities like the stadium, indoor hall, tennis courts, and administrative blocks of sports infrastructure.
He said that these infrastructure must first be rebuilt by the government before being handed over to the private sector for management.
“Government business now is to put these things right; when these things are standardised, the private sector can drive and achieve success.’’
Shaibu added that running sports with bureaucratic bottlenecks had stifled growth, noting that true progress could only come from a more flexible and business-oriented approach.
“Sport does not need the government bureaucracies that we have presently. If we leave sports to government bureaucracies as it is today, we will simply lament,” he said.
The NIS DG cited an example with the Super Falcons’ return to Nigeria from Morocco, as a part of poor government logistics planning.
He regretted that the nation had to be looking for a private jet to bring the players back after their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations victory in Morocco.
Reflecting also on his time in public office, the NIS DG said that transparency and accountability were the hallmark of his leadership.
He recalled that while serving in the National Assembly, he was the first to publicly announce the amount approved for constituency projects.
“I made the N20 million constituency funds public and allowed my constituents to determine how it should be spent.
“My performance in office was unprecedented and that has never happened. As a member of the House of Representatives, in 18 months, I did 13 constituency projects, whereas some members are not able to do 13 projects in eight years.”
Shaibu said he would bring the same zeal to his new role at the NIS, and as an experienced multi-sports athlete and administrator.
He revealed that he had spent the past weeks consulting widely and developing a strategic direction for the institute.
“What I have simply done in four to five weeks now was to reach out to major stakeholders.
“I was able to put up a document, which I named ‘Roadmap’; a 10-year strategic plan to reposition NIS to achieve its core mandate.
“A 32-member committee has been constituted to review and fine-tune the document. The reform will involve a total overhaul of the curriculum, removal of obsolete courses, and incorporation of modern sports science into the training programme.
“It’s like I’m resetting and restarting NIS afresh and also having a 10-year working document to make sure we don’t drift again,” he added.
By Deborah Coker
