PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has given his approval for Nigeria’s basketball teams to be immediately withdrawn from all international competitions.
This is as a result of the long-running leadership crisis that has plagued the Nigeria Basketball Federation for at least five years.
In spite of elections held late last year duly supervised by the Federation of International Basketball Federations, the current NBBF leadership is still disputed, with two separate boards claiming to be in charge.
The FIBA-supervised election was won by incumbent Musa Kida, while Mark Igoche claimed victory in a parallel election. The Igoche faction is reportedly backed by sports minister Sunday Dare.
President Buhari’s approval apparently came at the request of the sports ministry, whose permanent secretary Ismaila Abubakar announced the decision in Abuja today.
In a statement from the ministry’s permanent secretary’s office, the reason for the action is given as ‘unending crises’.
“Following the unending crises that have plagued and nearly crippled basketball development in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has today approved the immediate withdrawal of Nigeria from all international basketball competitions for a period of two years,” the statement reads in part.
“The withdrawal of Nigeria is in order to concentrate efforts by the Government towards revamping the sport from the grassroots as well as domestic leagues which have become moribund.
“This will also allow for the setting up of an Interim Management Committee to oversee the management and development of the domestic basketball leagues in Nigeria.”
The implications of the two-year withdrawal are grim for Nigeria’s national teams who have been making great strides in recent years.
D’Tigress, the women’s team, will not be able to attend the FIBA World Cup in Australia in September for which they have already qualified.
Both D’Tigress and D’Tigers, the men’s team, will miss the AfroBasket tournaments. D’Tigress are the women’s champions and have won the last three editions of the continental tournament.
Both teams will also miss the Olympics in Paris in 2024 because they will certainly not take part in the qualifying tournaments.
D’Tigers and D’Tigress will also definitely lose their status as the No.1 men’s and women’s African teams in the FIBA rankings if this decision is not reversed.
