The Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, says the future of the institution lies in a robust public-private partnership model and a total structural reset to revive its original vision of producing world-class coaches and sports professionals.
Speaking at a reception in his honour on Tuesday night, organised by former colleagues from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Shaibu said his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu comes with a clear mandate: total reform of the NIS.
“My mandate by Mr President was to go and carry out total reform, to reposition NIS to its core mandate — to produce excellent coaches for Nigeria and for Africa,” he said.
Shaibu, a former Edo State deputy governor and ex-member of the House of Representatives, said the institute had derailed from its foundational purpose, with its core facilities — such as the stadium, indoor hall, tennis courts, and administrative blocks — now in a state of disrepair. These, he said, must first be rebuilt by government before being handed over for private sector-driven management.
“Government business now is to put these things right… when these things are now standard, it’s the responsibility of the private sector to now drive,” he stated.
He added that running sports with bureaucratic bottlenecks has stifled growth, noting that true progress can only come from a more flexible and business-oriented approach.
“Sport does not need the government bureaucracies that we have presently… If we leave sport to government bureaucracies as it is today, we will simply lament it,” he said.
He cited Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) win as an example of poor government logistics planning, noting that after the team’s victory, “We have to be looking for private jet to bring the players back after they won… But what is in budget is we are going to tournaments, they are return tickets.”
Reflecting on his time in public office, Shaibu pointed to transparency and accountability as hallmarks 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.
“The first thing that I know, changed the narrative in Edo — not just the constituency project that I did, which is still standing and remarkable — but the first thing I did, that changed the idea that was there before I came, and today nobody can reverse it, was to announce how much was the constituency project. I announced it. I was the first,” he declared.
Shaibu said he made the N20 million constituency fund public and allowed his constituents to determine how it should be spent.
“I came out to say, 20 million has been approved for constituency project for each of us. And I went to the constituency. I said, this is what I think we should do, we should build classrooms. Because I remember my mother was teaching under the mango tree, so that thing was in my memory,” he explained.
He continued: “I said, I want to change that, and I told her, 20 million was approved. And when it was paid, I told them again. When it was increased again, to 36 million, when Oshiomhole became governor, I came again to announce it.”
His commitment to openness, however, did not go unchallenged. “I was the first to announce how much we had been paid. It became a problem. I was almost suspended in the House, but I didn’t care, because I saw the emolument — 29 items — only one belonged to the people, and that one is the biggest anyway,” he said.
According to him, his performance in office was unprecedented: “Which has never happened. And as a member of the House of Representatives, in 18 months, I did 13 constituency projects again… some members in eight years are not able to do 13 projects.”
Shaibu said he is bringing the same reformist zeal to his new role at the NIS. Drawing on his experience as a multi-sport athlete and administrator, he said he has spent the past weeks consulting widely and developing a strategic direction for the institute.
“What I’ve simply done in four to five weeks, in my first three weeks… was to go around, make calls, reach out… 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.”
He said 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… not just resetting, I’m starting afresh, also having a 10-year working document to make sure we don’t drift again,” he concluded.