Corruption and Misgovernance in Nigerian Sport: Legal Gaps, Policy Failures, and the Way Forward

This desk-based review critically examines corruption and misgovernance in Nigerian sport, focusing on institutional weaknesses, legal gaps, and policy failures. Drawing on peer-reviewed sources, the paper identifies five key challenges: legal fragmentation, political interference, policy incoherence, stakeholder exclusion, and lack of accountability. These issues hinder the implementation of Nigeria’s sports policy and foster elite capture and misappropriation of resources. The review offers reform pathways, including legal harmonisation, decentralised oversight, judicial enforcement, and participatory governance. A thematic synthesis summarises scholarly recommendations and exposes systemic dysfunctions. Ultimately, the paper advocates for governance rooted in transparency, enforceability, and inclusion. This study contributes to sport governance discourse in Africa and supports evidence-based advocacy and legal reform efforts targeting sustainable sport development.