By Mercy Gadia Adi
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, has unveiled plans to establish a National Sports Academy to drive sustainable sports development in Nigeria.
The proposal was made during the distribution of sports equipment to principal officers and members of the House Committee on Sports for their various constituents.
Hon. Tajudeen emphasized the need to return to grassroots sports development, citing the success of regular inter-primary and secondary school sports competitions in the 1970s that produced many big names in Nigerian sports.
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“The time has come with the dwindling fortune of Nigeria in the sports sector, particularly in the last appearances at the Olympic Games where we came back without a medal,” he said. “It is unacceptable for a country of over 200 million people to go for competitions and come back without a medal.”
The Speaker also announced that he has included funding for the National Sports Academy in the budget, which will feature indoor and outdoor games for children of secondary school age identified through grassroots competitions.
“I believe that at the end of the day, this initiative will bring a lot of international stars that Nigeria will be proud of,” he said.
“At the last Olympics, Saint Lucia, with a population of less than 100,000 people, won a gold medal, but Nigeria, with over 200 million, came back with nothing; it is unacceptable.
Hon. Tajudeen further charged members of the House to prioritize sports in their constituency development projects, suggesting that building a sports center and organizing competitions would be a more effective way to engage youths and promote development.
“Rather than focusing on skill acquisition centers or clinics, which may not achieve long-term goals due to lack of funding, building a sports center and organizing competitions will never go wrong,” he said.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Sports, Rep. Kabiru Amadu, commended President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly for the 288% increase in the sports sector budget from ₦29 billion in 2024 to ₦113 billion in 2025. He said the aim behind the distribution of equipment is to empower communities with the tools needed to foster talent, build discipline, and strengthen social ties through sports.
Hon. Amadu said that it will benefit 3,260 teams across the country as each state will receive between 80 to 120 sets of footballs and jerseys, distributed through the committee members and House leadership.
“Our goal is to build a sustainable sports ecosystem starting at the grassroots, where champions are discovered, talents nurtured, and characters built.
“Investing in grassroots sports means investing in the dreams of our young people; sports have the power to transform lives, but for too long, the focus has been on elite athletes. Today we begin to change that narrative.
“These items are not just physical equipment; they are symbols of opportunity, empowerment, and national progress,” he said.
The chairman emphasized the importance of ensuring that the sports equipment reaches the intended beneficiaries, highlighting that the true measure of success lies not in the quantity of equipment distributed, but in the lives transformed and talents discovered through sports.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mr. Shehu Dikko, emphasized the need to change Nigeria’s sports from being competition-driven to development-driven.
“The era where sports federations come to get money to participate in competitions must stop, to focus on sports development,” he said.
Dikko added that a bill to restructure the entire sports ecosystem in the country is on its way to the House, which seeks to create necessary agencies and development funds to run sports.