NIGERIA had one of its brightest days in international tennis on Sunday, February 8, 2026, when its team defeated Uzbekistan 3-1 to qualify for the Davis Cup World Group 11.

At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.

Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.

Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”

Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.

“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.

“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”

“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.

“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”

To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.

The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.

He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.

“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.

“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”

In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.

The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.

According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.

The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.

NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.

“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.

The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Philip Shuaibu, on Wednesday called for the speedy constitution of the 17-man board to manage the affairs of the National Sports Commission (NSC).

But his call for the board is, allegedly, not going down well within the top hierarchy of the NSC.

Shuaibu, a former Edo State deputy governor, who made the appeal yesterday, during a budget defence session at the National Assembly in Abuja, stated that constituting the NSC’s 17-man board would play a critical role in revitalising the sports sector.

According to him, a properly constituted NSC board would provide strategic direction and institutional stability necessary for long-term sports development.

He also renewed his calls for increased funding to reposition the National Institute of Sports (NIS) and advance sports development in Nigeria.

Shuaibu reaffirmed the institute’s commitment to fulfilling its mandate of training manpower for the sports ecosystem and promoting grassroots sports development, stressing that inadequate funding remains a major constraint.

“Our mandate is to train manpower for the sports ecosystem and promote sports from the grassroots,” he said. “But we cannot achieve this without adequate government funding. We need a budget that reflects our vision and mission to improve sports in Nigeria,” he stated.

Earlier, the Chairman of the House Committee on Sports, Kabiru Amadu, decried the poor funding of the institute, describing it as a critical pillar in national sports development.

Amadu emphasised the need for increased budgetary allocation to enable the NIS discharge its responsibilities effectively and pledged the committee’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to improve its funding for optimal performance.

Meanwhile, a top official of the National Sports Commission (NSC), has described Shuaibu’s call for proper constitution of the body as ‘unbelievable.’

The official refused to comment further when The Guardian urged him to clarify his statement on Wednesday.