Mallam Shehu Dikko, Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says integrity is critical to Nigerian sports development.
Speaking at the Integrity Symposium organized by the Sport Integrity Foundation on Friday at the Moshood Abiola Stadium Media Centre, Abuja,
Dikko said having men and women of high integrity in the sports ecosystem is crucial for the country’s sports development.
The chairman announced plans to establish an Independent Compliance Desk at the Commission to enhance integrity in Nigerian sports.
He said, “I personally believe in the agenda of integrity being pushed in this gathering, and I am where I am today because, by God’s grace, I have been through different levels of integrity checks.
“I believe so much in that word integrity in our sports, and some of us have come this far because we practice that word.
“We have to be deliberate about the issue of integrity in our sports, and those coming into our various federations must understand this and not see what we are doing as a witch-hunt.
“It cost FIFA a lot of dollars to perform integrity checks, and we must have such a mechanism in our sports here in Nigeria.”.
Dikko also urged the sporting media to report responsibly, avoiding unnecessary negative coverage that can harm the sports sector.
He assured the organisers of the Commission’s support for expanding the symposium to include more stakeholders, including presidents of sporting federations.
The coordinator of the Sport Integrity Foundation, Abiola Shodiya, pointed out that “integrity cannot be attained without transparency in sport.”
Shodiya applauded Persecondnews media for their support and coverage of the symposium.
He said: “Persecondnews played a key role in the organization and execution of the event. We would love to work more with Persecondnews.
“For our sports to attain the highest level of their potential, we need to comply with the highest integrity standards, which we must all submit ourselves to. Stakeholder collaboration is important for this to happen.”
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