Julius OkorieThe appointment of Shehu Dikko, as Chairman of the Returnee National Sports Commission, has been hailed by sports stakeholders from far and near.
Dikko was appointed as Chairman of NSC on Wednesday by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following the scrapping of Ministry of Sports and subsequent redeployment of incumbent Minister ,Senator John Enoh to Trade and Investment as Minister of State.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelKaduna State-born football administrator, Dikko, was the Chairman of the League Management Company, responsible for the management of the Nigerian Professional Football League.
He previously served as a consultant for the Nigerian House of Representatives on Sports committee
He has also been actively involved in the administration and management of football at grassroots, state, national and international levels over the last 20 years.
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He is believed that his wealth of experience garnered over two decades will come handy in the new attempt to position NSC where it should be and give sports in the country a new direction.
Before delving into football administration, Dikko had a stint in the private sector from 1991 to 2004. He worked at eRP/Design Cost Associate Limited as a senior project manager from 1991 to 1997. He then moved to Inter-Projects Associate Limited as Owner/Managing Partner; a position he is said to hold till date. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Deanshanger Project Limited, a project development, finance, investment and management company.
In 2004, when he went into football administration, he started as the FIFA Goal Project Manager (Nigeria), organising several club tours between Portsmouth FC and Manchester United (both in England), alongside Kano Pillars FC (Nigeria). In 2008, he was hired as a consultant to the sports committee of the Nigerian House of Representatives, where he served till 2011. While he was consulting for the government, he assisted in drafting the National Sports Commission bill.
Dikko attended Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna State, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Quantity Surveying. He also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Management, a Master of Business Administration degree from the same university.
Primebusiness.africa reports that the National Sports Commission with its origin dating back to 1910 is the apex body responsible for regulating sports in the country. It was scrapped by the Muhammadu Buhari Government in 2015 with Alhassan Yakmut serving as its last Director General.
Following Nigeria’s dismal outing at this Olympics in Paris France, some stakeholders re-echoed the need to return to National Sports Commission (NSC) noting it is only when that is done that professionals will be in a position run sports as an enterprise and not like civil servants.
Leading the pack of many who have congratulated Dikko on his appointment while remaining confident that he will deliver is the President of Nigeria Football federation, Ibrahim Gusau. Dikko’s wealth of experience in virtually all aspects of sports according to him will come very handy in his new assignment, adding that he has no doubt that will achieve set goals.
“On behalf of the NFF and the entire Nigeria football fraternity, I warmly and heartily congratulate Mallam Shehu Dikko on this huge national assignment that has been presented to him. I have no doubt that he has the knowledge, skill, experience, steadfastness, temperament, diligence and intelligence to make a success of the National Sports Commission” he enthused.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
