By Andrew Abah
The Commonwealth Games remains one of the most prestigious sporting fiesta in the World and unarguably ranks among the top three global sports competitions after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.
And Nigeria’s intention to stage this monumental sports gathering speaks volumes of how much the current administration of President Bola Tinubu sees sports in the overall success of the Renewed Hope agenda.
Sports is one sector the current administration has continued to yield positive trajectory in terms of reforms and upscaling after the President took a bold step to scrap the bureaucratic Ministry of Sports and replaced it with a more professional framework – the National Sports Commission, NSC, just a year ago.
The aftermath results of this decision has been very swift for even the blind to see, from the first day Mallam Shehu Dikko and Hon. Bukola Olopade were appointed to pilot affairs of the sector as Chairman and Director General respectively.
And one of the core mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to these two sports technocrats is to build a sustainable sports economy in Nigeria that is sports production-driven rather than consumption.
A country can achieve a sustainable, organic and thriving Sports Economy if its sports production model is effective, which speaks more on hosting domestic and international competitions rather than mere going out to attend competitions.
Such an approach is a major economic booster even beyond the sports sector because of the ripple effects across all boards.
Countries like South Africa have used a similar approach to build both human and infrastructural capacity that has made them a fast growing sports giant, not only on the continent but in the world.
They succeeded in hosting major international competitions like the Africa Cup of Nations, the Rugby World Cup, the FIFA World Cup and several other International junior competitions.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu understands this approach and this is the reason why the National Sports Commission has hosted and backed the staging of several international competitions this year, like the CAA Africa U18 and U20 championships in Abeokuta, the Africa Arm-Wrestling tournament in Abuja, the Africa Club Volleyball Championship in Abuja, the International Table Tennis classic in Lagos and the International Taekwondo Tournament in Abuja amongst others.
All of these speak volumes to the sustainable sports ecosystem that the government is determined to build so that sports can contribute its own quota to the country’s GDP, and winning the bid to host the entire Commonwealth nations in 2030 will surely be the icing on the cake and a legendary master stroke that will upscale the trajectory of Nigerian sports forever.
