The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Abdul Ningi, has commended President Bola Tinubu for giving special attention to Sports development in Nigeria.
Speaking during the 2026 Budget Defence of the National Sports Commission (NSC) at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, Senator Ningi said since 1999 there has never been a President who has clearly shown signal in prioritising Sports than President Tinubu.
He said since coming on board as leader of this nation, President Tinubu has show clear interest in projecting Nigerian Sports as an entity, with good intention of reseting the country’s Sports for good.
“I have said it before, and I’m going to say it again. Since 1999, there has never been a President who who has clearly shown signal in prioritising Sports than Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Senator Ningi said.
“He is not a member of my Party, but the President that has shown clear interest in projecting Sports as an entity, a Sports that should occupied a position in terms of what will becomes as a nation.”
“Many years, Sports has taken a back seat but I can see clearly that President Tinubu has good intention to bring back Sports to Nigeria,” he added.
Senator Ningi, who regretted that Nigeria could not qualify for the coming FIFA World Cup despite many slots allocated to Africa, urged the National Sports Commission and other relevant Stakeholders to learn from the setback.
“It is unfortunate that 10 slots is given to Africa for World Cup, but we could not qualify,” he said. “We qualified when it was 4 slots, we qualified when it was even 3.”
“But 10 slots, we couldn’t qualify, this is unpardonable. It has happened, we must learn from our mistakes,”
He assured the NSC that the National Assembly, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, will ensure Sports budget is paid in advance to enable them have early and adequate preparation for major competitions.
Also speaking, the Vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Ned Nwoko, expressed his happiness that President Tinubu did not hid his desire to support Sports.
“Mr. President has not hidden his desire to support sports. This is encouraging to those of us who are committed to grassroots development of sports,” he said. “Sports is a huge source of empowerment to the youths.”
“And we have to take it more seriously in this country. We will give you our support to take it to the desired heights and we must all acknowledge you have done so well. So far so good.”
Responding, the Chairman of the NSC, Shehu Dikko said the President’s current approval, directing adequate funding provision and first line charge funding for sports to avert delays in releases, will motivate the Commission to record more giant strides in sports.
“The President’s unprecedented position on sports will effectively solve the problem of non-release of funds. Stable Funding is critical in sports. Whether the funds are released or not, the championships will go on”.
Dikko also used the budget defence session to roll out some achievements of the Commission last year.
“In 2025, we recorded 375 medals across all sports. Almost all Federations were supported for tournaments abroad in addition to normal domestic programs and events,” Dikko stated.
“We supported about 50 contingents across all sports for international tournaments and only two came back without medals. The prompt release of funds will even jerk up these figures and would ensure we upscale our infrastructure in record time.”
“Our mandate is to harness the potential of the sports economy and make sports one of key driver of the sports economy and already the positive outcomes are evident.”
“In 2025 We have induced the creation of over 140,000 validated jobs both temporary and permanent through sports. In the 3rd quarter of 2025, we contributed 1.2% to the GDP.”
“This last quarter we still did over 1%. This had never happened before, that sports now contributes to the nation’s GDP. At this rate we will be able to do 4% of the GDP every year which is more than our projected 3%. We are really on course,” he concluded.
Dikko then appealed to the Committees to facilitate the reinforcement of the President’s directive so that the relevant agencies will be in proper alignment.