Coal City 2026: Nigerian coaches decry reduced number of events

By Editor

The Sports Coaches Association of Nigeria has called on the National Sports Commission to change its insistence on reducing the number of events at the 23rd National Sports Festival, billed for Enugu in November.

After a virtual meeting on Monday to deliberate on the development, SCAN said in a statement made available to the media that reducing the events from 40 to 15 limits opportunities for youths and runs contrary to the Federal Government Renewed Hope Initiative for Nigerian Sports Economy (RHINSE), which positions sports federations as a driver for job creation and national unity.

According to SCAN, the decision to cut down the number of sports was made without prior consultation with coaches and technical stakeholders, limiting the opportunity for younger athletes and disenfranchising hundreds of coaches who depend on the NSF for participation and professional engagement.

They say it also weakens Nigeria’s medal chances at the African Games, Commonwealth Games, and Olympics. Many of Nigeria’s 373 medals in 2025 came from sports now listed for removal.

“Coaches were assured by the NSC in Q1 2026 that the festival would be expanded to reflect the N203.6bn ‘full funding’ budget. This sudden reversal sends the wrong signal after years of advocating for increased investments,” said SCAN in the statement signed by coach Gabriel Opuana, who is president of the association.

SCAN said the NSF is not just a competition; “It is Nigeria’s Olympics. It is where the next Tobi Amusan, Aruna Quadri and D’Tigress stars are discovered. To reduce it is to reduce Nigeria’s future on the global stage.

“We are not opposed to fiscal responsibility. However, sports cannot be built by shrinking opportunity. The N203.6bn 2026 allocation approved by Mr. President was meant to restore Nigerian sports, not scale it back.

We acknowledge the need for efficiency and cost control. But efficiency must not come at the expense of opportunity, especially after decades of underfunding and broken promises to athletes and coaches.”

SCAN called for an immediate stakeholders’ dialogue between the NSC, presidents of the sporting federations and coaches’ representatives to discuss the issue as soon as possible and reverse the decision.

Also, the association demanded transparency on the technical and financial justification for each event.

“All sports on the Olympic and Paralympic events, alongside indigenous sports like Dambe and Kokawa, must remain in the NSF as development tools.

“The NSC can utilize part of the N60bn National Institute of Sports allocation to subsidize affected federations so their events can proceed,” said the statement.

We urge the NSC Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, to intervene and uphold the promise of “adequate provisions for sporting activities” made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the fiscal year.