Shaibu Urges Mark to Stay Committed to Nigerian Basketball

The Director General of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, has thrown his weight firmly behind one of the country’s most visible basketball backers, urging Igoche Mark not to ease off in his push to grow the game in Nigeria.

Shaibu delivered the message in Abuja on Monday when he received Mark at the institute. Mark was visiting to motivate a group of basketball coaches currently in training under his sponsorship — many of them former players now trying to cross the line into full-time coaching.

Shaibu did not hide his appreciation.

“I want to thank you for stopping by to see some of our students. I am told that you are sponsoring quite a number of them, and I am confident that this partnership will yield results,” the NIS boss said, before driving home his main point. “I thank you for what you have done for basketball, and I plead with you: do not give up on basketball.”

The words carried weight, not just because of Shaibu’s office, but because of the setting. The NIS in Abuja has become a key hub for Nigeria’s technical development in sport, and on this visit, Mark found a very different institution from the one he saw a few years ago.

Mark, initiator of the Mark D’Ball Basketball Championship and one of the sport’s consistent private-sector voices, openly praised the transformation he met on ground.

“We were here in 2022, but coming here today and seeing the level of transformation, I am not surprised,” he said, drawing a direct line between the changes at the institute and Shaibu’s track record. “Having seen what you did in Edo, I know that excellence has always been part of you.

“With people like you in this country, there is hope because you turn things around,” he added, framing the NIS upgrade as part of a broader pattern in Shaibu’s sports administration.

For Mark, the trip was not ceremonial. It was about the next layer of the basketball pyramid: coaches who can match the ambition of Nigeria’s talent.

“I came to encourage those undergoing training. They were once players, and now they are transitioning into coaching,” he explained. The message to them was blunt and practical. “Without proper certification, you cannot function on the international scene because you cannot sit on the bench if you are not certified.”

In a sport where raw ability has never been Nigeria’s problem, the partnership between a public institution like the NIS and private promoters like Mark may prove decisive. Facilities can be built, tournaments can be branded, but without qualified minds on the bench, the ceiling remains low.

Shaibu’s plea for Mark to stay the course, and Mark’s insistence on certification as the ticket to the global stage, point to the same conclusion: Nigeria’s basketball future will be shaped as much in classrooms and coaching clinics as on the hardwood.