National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko Compounds a Deliberate Confusion By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

HOURS after this column was published last Sunday, I got a call from Mallam Shehu Dikko who after pleasantries said that I went “off mark” by writing about the illegality of the National Sports Commission which he was announced the Chairman three weeks earlier. The kernel of his position was that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Sports Commission Act 2023 in his last days in office, so there is a law. And that a law cannot foster an organisation’s illegal actions.

For the 15 minutes he spent justifying the office he occupies, he also acknowledged that “the 1971 National Sports Commission Act” had not been repealed. The President could still have appointed him with that law. He could make a good salesman for the National Sports Commission, when established, if he respects the law.

When I got a chance to speak, I asked him if the 2023 Act had a provision for a two-man board. He explained that more members would be appointed when aspects of the Act had been worked on to reflect the type of Commission that he envisions. He promised it would not take long.

“Nothing is wrong with what has been done,” he said about the board membership. “The same thing happened with the Students Loans Board. The Chairman was first appointed and then other board members,” he reminded me.
“The present Act proposed a board of about 17 people. It is too much. We will have a smaller number, at most 11. The plan is for us to run the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) model where each of the six geo-political zones will have Executive Directors to run sports in the zones. There would be spaces for stakeholders,” he said. He wants a board that would re-position the sports economy as a major contributor to the national economy.

Simply put, Dikko was appointed to re-work the law with which he was appointed. He explained that was why a full board was not announced.

Dikko mentioned that with his position, he was the Minister of Sports and the Director-General Chief Bukola Olawale Olopade, who was appointed three weeks after the Chairman, was the Permanent Secretary. I ignored the comment.

In the Act, those positions are distinct. Why the haste to annexe them when the law said something different? Which Act is the National Sports Commission operating with that affirms its legality?
Watch as the confuse spews and gains official endorsement.

Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, in a press release on a delegation that Dikko led to NNPC management on Thursday 21 November 2024, addressed Dikko thrice as the “Minister of Sports”. There has been no “correction” made.

“Addressing the delegation which was led by the Chairman of the National Sports Commission and Minister of Sports, Alhaji Shehu Dikko, the GCEO, said NNPC Ltd. was ready to be part of the initiative to revamp the nation’s football,” the release stated.

No mistakes there. Dikko was at NNPC to discuss revamping of football, note, not sports.

“NNPC will be a prime partner in the journey to bring back value to our football, to reshape it, re-engineer it and bring happiness to our people”, (Mele) Kyari stated.

“Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission and Minister of Sports, Alhaji Shehu Dikko, said football was fundamental to the economies of the best footballing countries in the world, adding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for immediate action to revamp the game.

“He said the multiplier effects of football were enormous and could facilitate the revamp of related industries across the value chain.

“The Minister noted that IMG, which promotes the English Premier League, was invited as a technical partner to leverage their experience in the sport,” according to the NNPC release.

Dikko, also the Minister of Sports, without a Ministry, was at NNPC to seek help for football as “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for immediate action to revamp the game”.

Only Dikko knows what the President told him about his mandate and the supplementary title to get his work done. When he goes to NNPC, with all its muscles, to market football, where and when will he pitch for sports?

More than anyone, Dikko knows that football with its consuming structures will not come to much good even if a sponsor pours billions of Dollars into it. How has NFF managed the millions it gets from FIFA and CAF?

The chaotic contraption called National Sports Commission Act 2023 has such incoherences that nobody should have worked with it. A quiet review and amendments would have cured the confusion that Dikko has embraced to keep his office and take the heat off the President who appointed him.

A high possibility is that the 2023 Act was used without anyone reading it or those who did felt that Sports was too unimportant for any diligence in its regulation or administration.

Dikko’s defences were admissions that the Act was faulty. The appointments he claimed to be based on the Act must have been made from elsewhere.
National Sports Commission Act 2023 envisaged a Ministry of Sports as it mentions “Minister responsible for Sports” and has board seats for the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, and the Director responsible for Sports in the Ministry.

No further excuses are permitted for the abberations in the so-called National Sports Commission. Appointments should not be made in breaches of a law on which they are supposedly rooted, and those appointed are the ones to amend the law to legitimise their appointments.
Very disheartening is that those who know these things, including lawyers and patriots, defend them for their own reasons. Their attempt at defending the illegality includes flooding my mail boxes with the same law they decide the parts to implement.

They must have a new meaning for illegality.

Finally...

UBER, the hailing taxi platform, can do better than exploiting clients and blaming it on technology. Thursday, 21 November 2024, Uber named a “reasonable” fare of N13,700 from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to Gwarinpa, in Abuja Municipal Council Area. Minutes to the destination, Uber sent a message that one could not be reached, blaming it on “your network”. The blamed network led the cab to the destination correctly. Uber next messaged that its earlier fare was outdated. The updated fare was N23,900! How does one deal with this shock? Is Uber luring riders with lower fares and decides what to charge after the journey? The Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, should look into the matter. Is it possible other taxi hailing services treat their clients the same way?

WILL Seyi Tinubu be the Governor of Lagos State in 2027? The question properly posed would be, “Does Seyi Tinubu want to be Governor of Lagos State? The first question creates doubts about the young man’s ability to pull it off, while the second question wonders if it is something that would appeal to the First Son. If Seyi “wants” the office, the biggest opposition could be from other members of the rich family who would fancy the position. With the President’s spectacular performance that is obvious for all to see, it should not be a surprise that the Tinubus want to live in the future having abolished the present.

HAVE we not become so over-federated that it affects our thinking? In the past week, the social media was ablaze with mockery of two Senior Special Assistants for Agriculture that the Chairman of Igbo Etiti Local Government Area, Enugu State, appointed. One was for Yam and Pepper and the other for Garden Egg. The economy of the area is agrarian. What is wrong with the Chairman making those appointments if they would enhance the growth of the area’s economy? Most people think it is just ‘job for the boys’. It could and should be more.

ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues