The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has called for an independent National Sports Commission (NSC) to develop the sector.

He made the call on Thursday at a Public Hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Sports and Youths Development, chaired by Obinna Ogba.

The hearing was on two bills – The National Sports Commission Establishment Bill, 2020 and the Federal Sports University, Nkalagu, Ebonyi Establishment Bill, 2020.

“We must set up a contemporary commission.

One that can deliberately develop our sports and radically depart from what we have before,” Mr Dare said.

He said that the sports commission must be restructured in a way that would make it capable of doing the work of repositioning the agenda as the ministry had mapped out in the National Sports Industry Policy (NSIP).

“As a ministry, we have been working with critical stakeholders to deliver for our country a new sports industry policy, christened the Nigerian Sports Industry Policy (NSIP).

“By this, we hope to change the scope of our sports development. We intend to build a business model around sports in Nigeria so that we can be on the same path like North America, Europe and other climes,” he further added.

Declaring the hearing open, the president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who was represented by the Senate Minority Whip, Philip Aduda, said that sports had become a tool of influence and commercial endeavour and called for the right governance and policy framework to develop the sector.