The National Sports Commission (NSC) has unveiled a powerful new Integrity Unit (IU), marking a major step in Nigeria’s quest to reassert itself as one of the world’s leading sporting nations.
The new unit is designed to safeguard ethics, transparency, and credibility across all levels of Nigerian sports.
This development follows the just-concluded National Council on Sports Meeting in Calabar, where landmark resolutions were adopted, including the criminalisation of age falsification and the introduction of strict sanctions for violators.
Moving swiftly from policy to implementation, the NSC has now activated the structural framework needed to enforce these reforms.
According to the NSC Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade, the Integrity Unit will collaborate with sports federations, the Anti-Doping Committee, athletes, and the Elite & Podium Development Board to uphold global best practices and address long-standing credibility issues that have affected the nation’s international reputation.
“The Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, and myself are very committed to institutionalising this reform because it will solve most of the problems Nigeria has been battling with at the international level for many years,” Olopade said.
He further explained that the IU will ensure every athlete selected for international competitions meets strict standards relating to age integrity and anti-doping compliance.
“As a top sporting nation with a rich history, we want Nigeria’s integrity profile to be unquestionable in the eyes of international sports organisations,” he added.
The creation of the Integrity Unit is fully aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative for Nigeria’s Sports Economy (RHINSE), which aims to rebuild the sector through stronger governance structures, enhanced accountability, and athlete-focused reforms.
With this bold step, the NSC has sent a clear message to domestic stakeholders and the global sports community: Nigeria is raising the bar. Age cheating, doping violations, and administrative negligence will no longer have a place within the country’s sporting ecosystem.
