Shaibu Encourages Mark to Continue Nigeria's Basketball Development
The Director General of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, has called on basketball promoter Igoche Mark to stay committed to his long-term project of lifting the sport in Nigeria, insisting the game “cannot afford” to lose such private backing.
Shaibu delivered the message in Abuja on Monday when he hosted Mark, the initiator of the Mark D’Ball Basketball Championship, who visited the institute to motivate basketball coaches currently in training under his sponsorship.
Inside the NIS, where young coaches are trying to turn playing experience into technical expertise, the DG made his stance clear. He praised Mark’s investment, but pushed for even more persistence.
“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,” Shaibu 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 visit doubled as both a progress check and a statement of intent. Mark, whose Mark D’Ball platform has become one of the more visible private initiatives in Nigerian basketball, used the occasion to hail the changes he has seen at the NIS under Shaibu.
He drew a direct line between the DG’s current work and his track record from his days in Edo State, where Shaibu built a reputation around sports development.
“We were here in 2022, but coming here today and seeing the level of transformation, I am not surprised,” Mark said. “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.”
For Mark, though, the heart of the visit lay on the training ground. The coaches he is backing are at a crossroads in their careers, stepping off the court and onto the touchline, trying to stay in the game in a different role.
“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. Passion is not enough. Paperwork matters.
“Without proper certification, you cannot function on the international scene because you cannot sit on the bench if you are not certified,” Mark said.
In a sport where Nigeria’s raw talent is rarely in doubt but structures often are, the scene at the NIS told its own story: a public institution trying to modernise, a private promoter bankrolling opportunity, and a new generation of coaches being told that knowledge, not just reputation, will decide who gets a seat on the bench.
