Sports ministry pushes for federations autonomy

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has revealed that there are plans to make the sporting federations self-sufficient with the planned return of the National Sports Commission (NSC) The NSC is the apex body responsible for regulating sports in the country before it was scrapped by the Muhammadu Buhari government in 2016. […]

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has revealed that there are plans to make the sporting federations self-sufficient with the planned return of the National Sports Commission (NSC)

The NSC is the apex body responsible for regulating sports in the country before it was scrapped by the Muhammadu Buhari government in 2016.

It will be recalled that Buhari gave the directive for the merger of the Commission with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, adding that the creation of the commission had no legal backing.

Dare stated that the return of the commission will make the sports federations run more efficiently and accountably while the ministry will also be able to focus more on policies and overall supervision with the Commission in place.

According to him, the commission will be headed by a sports technocrat who will ensure that the federations have financial autonomy thereby able to source their own funds and run all their developmental programmes independently and effectively while the Ministry will be responsible for the preparation and participation of Team Nigeria athletes for the major international competitions.

“The Ministry is pushing for the return of the National Sports Commission (NSC)because that is the way to get our sports federations working effectively,” the Minister opened up, “the federations will be directly under the NSC and will be able to source their funds. The Ministry only steps in when there is a major international competition like the Olympics, African Games and Commonwealth Games,” he stated.