NSC, Creative Ministry Collaborate To Actualize Sports, Creative Economies

National Sports Commission Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko played host at the NSC Headquarters to Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy Bar. Hannatu Musawa to fine-tune a collaboration aimed at meeting the sports economy, entertainment and creative economy mandates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking at the event, Bar. Musawa highlighted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s boldness in taking decisions while pointing out the need to synergize and do things differently.

Her words, “Mr. President has a vision for young people and the majority of Nigerians are young people who are looking for a sense of direction. One thing that stands out is the President’s ability to interrupt the normal way of doing things and reset the system for sustainable development and growth. As a nation we couldn’t continue the way we were going. We had to do things differently.

She eulogized the resourcefulness, intellect and industry of Mallam Dikko and believes he is the ideal person to steer the sporting sector out of the doldrums.

“I have spent about thirty minutes discussing with the Chairman (Mallam Dikko) and now I understand why the sports industry needed that independence it required.

“There is no way sports will flourish if it was bogged down by the bureaucracy of the past. Then there is a leader, a Chairman that is ready not just to think out of the box, but to push, pull and tear down that envelope.

“It is important to have a leader that looks at things from the grassroots and bottom up approach. He is looking at addressing the root causes why sports continues to be in a cataclyctic manner where it is not growing. Where we were unable to win a medal at the last Olympics etc .

“The Chairman is addressing the issue from the roots, to the point that he is even addressing education within the sports structure so that sports becomes part of the mindset of the young people. The young Nigerian can own the issue of sports because it becomes part of his knowledge and history growing up.”

“Listening to the things he wants to do is comforting to me as a Nigerian. He is looking at some of the baseline countries that have done sports in a very revolutionary way and he is trying to replicate that in Nigeria. Sports is not just going in the right direction, it is completely in the right hands”, she enthused.

Bar. Musawa harped on the need for the collaboration between sports and the creatives.

“When sports and creative speak, Nigerians listen, Nigerians unite. We should join hands and carry out the mandate of Mr. President”, she opined.

She continued, “We spoke about the building of an equestrian city project, a creatives hubs etc. We noted the lack of sporting infrastructure. We can create an ecosystem within the sports and creative community where we can merge.

“My ministry has gone far in the talks about a creative hub that will have an animation. Already that is something that the Sports Commission is working on. So rather than operate in silos, we can join forces so that together we can leverage more on the capacity and complimentary advantages that we have to build something unique.”

While pointing out that her ministry intends building a cultural museum, creative hubs with even private financing locked down, she noted that it would be perfect to situate this game-changing and economically viable projects within the Moshood Abiola National Stadium.
She thus stated that a collaboration between both institutions “will be the key to unlocking the potentials of Abuja as the greatest city.”

She concluded, “We will be signing an MOU. After that, we will divulge what is in that MOU and get down to work. And there is no better person that I can work on this project with than you, Chairman.”

In his speech, Mallam Dikko hailed the Honourable Minister for “doing an amazing work with the creatives and trying to break the ceiling by doing things differently.”

He added, “Creatives and sports are part of our national assets because they break all our fast lines and brings all together as one. For example Every time you see a Burna Boy performing on the global stage or a video somewhere breaking barriers across the world, nobody remembers who he is, we are all proud to say we are Nigerians. Same thing with sports.

We are all celebrating Osimhen today as our global icon but before 2015, he was just a normal boy doing his thing to survive on the streets. With his exploits, he has taken his family and generation to the next level. Only sports and the creatives can give someone that kind of pathway to greatness.

“It’s a no brainer that we have to work together. The type of positives that creatives and sports people are giving Nigeria, if we spend $1b on PR a year, we can’t buy it.”

He believes the collaboration will help them achieve the President’s mandate.

“What you have listed here aligns with our Sports City vision. Mr. President has given you the mandate to harness the potentials of creative economy and given us the mandate to harness the potentials of sports economy.

“We have to collaborate to achieve these. We are ready to give the facilities, enablers and available land to develop all those great ideas that you have mentioned here.

“Our objective is that in a couple of years, we should be counting 3m sports jobs both direct, indirect and induced as well as be at least 3% of GDP.
We can’t achieve that without this kind of collaborations to fast-track development”, he concluded.