4 reasons President Muhamadu Buhari must not appoint a new Minister of Sports

With the release of the long awaited Ministerial list of the Federal government by the Nigerian Senate early yesterday, many Nigerian sports fans as well as prominent figures in the sports sector would surely have a very recurring question at the back of their minds which goes thus; "who would be at the helm of affairs in the sports ministry?"
Sometime last month i recall listening to a sports program on one of the local radio stations and this very important question  "who should be the next minister of sports?" was put up on the forum which had speakers to help for analysis, that was when it struck me.

All the analysts on the show that day tended to tilt towards former Minister of Sports Bolaji Abdullahi who held the position at a certain period in the past adminisrtation of President Goodluck Jonathan and couldn't just see past the Kwara born politician for the position when the ministerial list were out as he had also defected to the ruling party while also helping in his his own capacity to see that present President Muhamadu Buhari won the last election. I however had a very different view of who and how things should be run in the Sports ministry.

Don't get me wrong Mr. Abdullahi had or has  done nothing wrong in fact given how successful his tenure as the Minister of Sports was with Nigeria achieving some great feats and achievements he was acclaimed the best Minister of Sports the country had produced by many and i'm of the same view too.
Meanwhile coming back to that very important question "who should be the next minister of sports?" what struck me on listening to that program was an idea even those so called analysts had no notice of that it was a very evident, weird but understandably sensible idea that Nigeria didn't really need one and has not actually needed one but failed to see it somehow.

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Now don't fret i'll give you genuine reason's as to why i feel this bold claim is a fact and should be followed in whatever ministerial list President Muhamadu Buhari is preparing for the nation. Lets delve in shall we:

1. Minister of Sports or Minister of football?
 Yea Yea i know its another question but its one of the very essential and important reasons i see another Minister of sports for this country as very detrimental to the development of sports generally in the country.
Personally my love for football overshadows other sports but its not the only sport i follow as i also love tennis, basketball and golf and this kind of relationship can be related to what we've seen from most if not all of the minister's of Sports we've had in this country and is vividly evident in the level of development in football in the country as to a sport like cricket which exists. Yes cricket exists in this country! and there are some very ardent cricket lovers and followers in this country but there is a high level of desertation in the sport and cricket is just an example. So personally we are lovers of Sports and maybe if i was appointed the minister of sports sometime this is not a campaign oo, there would be that urge to as much as possible boost football to the highest possible level as i already have so many ideas i would like to input into the country's footballing system just locked in my head, we are humans and its understandable it's what you love but it boils down to that simple fact when you come in for work everyday and you look at the door to your office and it reads Minister of Sports and not Minister of football trust me i don't really know whether most of the past ministers of sports even for once just stopped to see what was written on the door of an office they kept on going to everyday to be the administrative voice of sports.

2. The NSC should be in charge!
What is the NSC for would be the most obvious question some people should be asking right now anyways it's full meaning is the National Sports Commission and this is the definition of the specification of work the NSC has concerning sports in the country, its described according to Wikipedia as the "apex body" responsible for regulating Sports in the country and is headed by a Director General. Apex-body in quotes as you can see but in this country lets be frank and honest with each other has the NSC ever been involved with any of the Nigerian Football teams as like an oversight or something not absolutely directly? or even the high and mighty Nigerian Football Federation which seems to take orders from only two people at a certain time the President or the minister of Sports?, so what has been the real job of the NSC over the years?
These are very intuitive questions that need answering by the government as well as the senate which i would rightly also blame because they say one of their main jobs is to carry out oversight, i guess this should be a very interesting and important one to be looked upon as there is the need for we Nigerians to understand whether the "NSC is just the NSC of the Nigerian Sports festival only or Nigerian Sports in general".
They create a body like the NSC giving it apex powers and turn it into a mere under funded subordinate of another ministry of Sports. This is not Politics but one has to wonder seriously because it seems there is this sense of shared responsibility where the NSC does all it can catering for the other sports in the country while football just enjoys both presidential and ministerial favours and attention.

3. The NSC can handle the Sports sector competently and alone!
This was evidently portrayed during the just concluded all Africa games in Congo Brazaville where Team Nigeria came fourth on the final medal's table with 23 gold medals, 33 silver medals, 27 bronze medals a final total medal haul of 83 medals, a decent run given we started quite slowly and at this time the President was yet to appoint the Minister of Sports so the outing was totally co-ordinated by the NSC and was fairly successful because Nigeria won medals in some sports we were not really known for like shot-put. That is what the right amount of training, and the right quality of coaching staff can do. I guarantee you we already have the talents and in the football event we only took the bronze medal.
If the NSC could solely and solely "well emphasised" be handled the Sports portfolio and funding with football involved and all the federations and associations involved in Sporting activities in the Country under the body it would be a very big plus to the country because Sports is a very big avenue for any government to boost the economy of the country both job-wise and revenue wise only if they could realise it.

4. Flush of Cash
I am not going to tell you that i know the funds allocation and collection system of the NSC, the ministry of Sports or any federation or association of any Sport in the country but it is quite obvious that a very large chunk goes into football and i stated the main reason for this situation earlier. I'm not saying that football should be left to rot but all i am saying is that funds should be somewhat evenly shared. Somewhat in the sense that i doubt if it could be evenly shared amongst all the federations for the development of their various sports and all but whatever sharing quota system  is used to share the funds should be very understandable and realistic so as not to push some Sports into extinction in the Country as a result of poor funding while some just enjoy and lavishly spend the funds which is the very evident case today.

With these reasons and facts i stand by my initial assertions that Nigeria doesn't  really need a minister of sports and has not actually needed one for a while. I will however prescribe a very swift yet effective and  basic solution  to the Buhari led government which would be to merge the ministry of sports and the NSC into one as the two entities should not stand alone an action which would not only be cost-saving but also cost-effective to the government while significantly improving Nigerian sports generally. 

Question: What do you think? Do you share the same views and have other reason's why there shouldn't be a minister of sports appointed by President Buhari in his government or your totally against the idea and also have reasons for this, Just let yourself be heard, Post comments by clicking on "post a comment below".