NSC endorses request for Olympians to serve as mentors to athletes at major sporting events

The National Sports Commission has endorsed the request by the Nigeria Olympians Association, NOA, for an ‘entourage commission’ which would see the Olympians serve as mentors to athletes at major sporting events

The NSC helmsman, Shehu Dikko says his Commission will go a step further by making it a law for retired athletes to accompany Team Nigeria athletes to Games/Championships.

‘The issue of entourage commission is one that I am committed to. In fact, we will push to make it a bill so that it becomes a law to have these retired athletes who have seen it all accompany our athletes to Games.

‘There is a huge psychological boost the presence of these great Olympians will have on the athletes having them side by side at the Games.”

Dikko eulogized the Olympians for their past exploits that brought honour to the nation and promised to engage them more in the Commission’s activities.

“The major reason why the President set up the Commission is for the professionalization of the sector. Who are the core professionals? It is people like you. We will look at the involvement of the Olympians in our programs. If you have the right people on the table, you get quality representation”, he added.

He drummed up the Commission’s aggressive grassroots sports development drive in a bid to strengthen the conveyor belt for talents and replace the retired athletes.

“We are doing things differently now. We have set up the three Rs, reset, refocus and relaunch. We are moving our sports from the emphasis on competitions which is consumption to development which is production.

‘This entails that we have to be deliberate in our grassroots development of sports, the schools sports, NUGA, NIPOGA, NACEGA Games. We have struggled to replace most of you retired athletes over the years because of this neglect for the grassroots. We are changing all that now”, he said.