The Director-General of the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Phillip Shaibu, has accused the Federal Government of deliberately sidelining the institute from national sports funding, despite record allocations to the sector in recent years.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Shaibu noted that while President Bola Tinubu’s administration has provided the highest budgetary allocation the sports sector has ever received, the NIS was not included.
“Sports funding has seen one of the highest allocations in this administration. The last budget was the highest the sports sector has ever had, but NIS was not captured in that funding, and it has been like that for decades,” he said.
Shaibu blamed past sports ministers and Nigeria’s budgeting framework for the decline of the institute, calling for accountability.
“All the former Ministers of Sports should be called to account for their role in destroying NIS. It was deliberate because the budgeting system encourages consumption and does not encourage infrastructural development or maintenance,” he stated.
He argued that the government’s role in sports should focus on infrastructure rather than daily administration.
“In simple economics, government has no business in business but has business in providing enabling environments. In sports, the government has no business in the daily running of sports, but they have business in developing and building the infrastructure. That infrastructure is what the private sector will leverage on,” Shaibu explained.
Shaibu revealed that when he assumed office five months ago, the 51-year-old institute had no clear development plan.
“I met the NIS, who is 51 years old, five months ago, without a plan, so we had to create a roadmap. Funding is a major problem, so we had to get the private sector involved,” he said.
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He added that frustration over Nigeria’s poor sports performance has discouraged private sector investment, though some stakeholders remain interested in reviving the institute.
Despite inheriting a lean budget, Shaibu said the NIS has managed to launch key programmes through public-private partnerships.
“I met a very lean budget, and that gave me more reason to think outside the box. With that lean budget, we’ve been able to kick-start our programmes,” he noted.
Shaibu disclosed that the Abuja office of the institute, inactive for decades, has been revived without direct government funding.
“We brought the Abuja office back to life with no resources. We had our first three-month coaching programme after 30 years in Abuja, and we graduated those students on December 18. The office is back and well renovated without budget and can compete with any office in Nigeria in terms of standard,” he said.
The NIS DG warned that Nigeria’s sports fortunes will remain unstable unless the institute is properly funded and functional.
“NIS is the critical sector that produces the players, the coaches, the referees. It’s the training institute for the sports ecosystem. When that system is not functioning, don’t expect anything better in Nigerian sports because the engine room for sports is not functioning,” Shaibu cautioned.
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