By Aderonke Ojo
The Director General (DG) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Institute For Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu has charged participants of the NIS to be good ambassadors of the institute.
He made the charge during a parley with the 2025 Nasarawa state coaches undergoing certificate training at the revamped NIS building inside the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
Comrade Shaibu who is the immediate past Deputy Governor of Edo State urged the participants to not just talk about what they have learned during their training course but must act the new spirit of excellence because they are the new faces of the institution
”Now you are going to preach and act what you have learned here because you are not just coming to NIS for the basics of coaching, you’re also going to be taking the new spirits of the excellent development of grassroots sports back to your state.” He said.
Shaibu also noted that as ambassador of the NIS, they could be called upon at any time to be resource persons at NIS grassroots development programmes across the country.
”I want to assure you that you are going to be our ambassador and alumni of this institute. So, what it means is that, as we give you the certificates you are going to be our ambassador and you are part of us. So at every given time in our programmes we are going to be calling on you to become trainers during our grassroots development programmes that we are going to be introducing across the states.”
”By the first quarter of 2026 we rely on some of these basic centres and that’s why we are not just teaching you to coach people only but also impart knowledge, the educational aspect is key when we start doing the grassroot coaching programmes.” Shaibu explained.
The DG/CEO of the NIS further promised that under his watch, through the NIS, Nigeria will once again become the hub of sporting activities in Africa.
”So you are already part of NIS and together we will take sports from where it is temporarily- Morocco and South Africa and bring it back to Nigeria.”