National Sports Commission Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko and Katsina State Governor His Excellency Dr. Dikko Umar Radda rose from a strategic meeting at the NSC Secretariat with an understanding to forge a collaboration between the Commission and the state for the advancement of mutual interests in sports.
Discussions centered around the sports economy, upgrading sporting facilities in the state, grassroots sports development and schools sports. These areas aligned with the Commission’s vision.
Thrilled by the sports economy vision of the Commission, H.E Dr. Dikko Radda plans to replicate this in the state and make sports a major economic driver. In his reckoning sports should contribute largely to the GDP of the state. To this end, he has set up an economic team and was accompanied by his economic adviser.
Key to this, will be to replicate the Commission’s sports city vision in the state. The collaboration would aim to turn the Muhammad Dikko Stadium Katsina into a sports city.
The plan is to upscale the stadium and make it fully compliant with FIFA standards as the immediate step. In the wake of NSC Chairman’s foreign trip where he held meetings with top rated facilities experts, discussions equally involved those experts visiting Katsina Stadium to see what they make of it and suggest the possibilities to make the stadium compliant to FIFA standards.
The Katsina State Governor is also in tune with NSC’s center of excellence project and plans to, in collaboration with the Commission, set up centers of excellence in the state. Three secondary schools one from each Zone of the State and one primary school from each Local Government will be designated as centers of excellence in Katsina. This should aid grassroots sports development through the schools.
In the aspect of talent hunting, the collaboration with the Commission will involve helping the state to discover quality talents from the grassroots through the Katsina State Academy. The target is to make the academy fit-for-purpose.
Mallam Dikko is optimistic that this collaboration between the ‘Dikkos’ will boost the Commission’s sports economy drive which should cascade down to the states.
His words, “What we are doing is not restricted to the federal level. We are the National Sports Commission and our mandate covers all the states in the country. It is good to have Governors like His Excellency Dr. Radda who have this will to drive this vision home. As we say, where there is a will there will surely be a way. This meeting was very fruitful and we will work to activate all the understanding reached and hopefully can be a model with other sub-nationals. We agreed to set up a joint team between the Commission and the State to actualize the issues discussed.”
