In his avowed commitment towards taken sports to a podium height, the Chairman National Sports Commission Mallam Shehu Dikko has inaugurated the Elite Athletes Development and Podium Board charging them to be proactive and ensure Nigerian sports meets up with global success. Speaking during the inauguration held recently at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja, the Chairman said, globally sports has gone technical, hence the need for crucial measures to be able to meet up with global practices; “Setting up the Board is a crucial step towards strengthening Nigeria’s Sports Development and ensure our athletes achieve global success.” Mallam Dikko noted that Members of the board, are seasoned sports technocrats who were carefully selected to bring in their wealth of experience, to drive sports and prepare Atheletes to podium performance internationally. “Their collective expertise will be instrumental in the development and success of our athletes, together we will create an environment that nortures talents, promotes excellence and delivers results”. As a Commission, he stated further that we are working hard to bring back all the key areas in sports especially in grassroots sports development through re introduction of school sports and and setting up of center of excellence in various tertiary institutions where our young talents can be nortured. The Chairman expressed his optimism in his leadership, to drive sports to an enviable level and with the line of budget put in place for the various tiers of the sector, the pace has been set for the private sector to come in, this way the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President for the creation of a sports industry can also be achieved,” he said. Earlier, the Director General of the Commission, Honourable Olapade olubukola, commended the initiative of forming the board which he said is a significant step towards achieving its vision of making Nigeria a force to be reckoned with in the world of sports. “With your support and guidance we believe that our athletes will have the best possible preparations, training and resources to achieve podium success and bring glory to the nation.” He expressed confidence in the board and assured them of the full support of the commission, encouraging them to work closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure the success of their mandate. In his remark, the media aide to the President and former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare congratulated the newly inaugurated board members and urged them to see the job as a service to the Nation. He commended the President for his commitment in seeing to the development of sports in the country while encouraging the sports leadership to take the podium performance seriously stressing that; “Your achievements cannot be measured by beautiful stadium built, but by podium performance and you can have all the money, if podium performance does not have gold medals coming in you have achieved nothing,” he said. The Board is to be headed by Mr Yusuf Ali, other members are; Prof. Ken Anugweje, Bambo Akanni, Dr. Emmanuel Igbinosa, Mallam Salisu Abubakar, Aku Aghazu, Tunde Adelakun, Prof.Sadiq Abdulahi, Mary Onyeali, Hauwa Kulu Akinyemi, Suleiman Isah, Olumide Oyedeji and Bamiduro Olumide. The Terms of Reference among othing things includes Developing a robust and sustainable high performance system for podium success, identify and defining the broad range of roles and responsibilities of the entire high performance chain, construct an organogram for establishment of various roles, design and implement talent identification, development and progress as well as see to the selection preparation and participation of Atheletes for major international tournaments. They are to be giving monthly annual report to the Commission. Responding on behalf of the inaugurated members ,the Chief Executive of the Board Mr Yusuf Ali thanked the Commission for finding them worthy to serve the country in that capacity. He appreciated the opportunity given them to serve, but assured that they will deliver on the mandate given.
