Basketball ban: South-south opts out of FG-organised tournaments

The current crisis in Nigeria basketball has taken a disturbing turn with stakeholders in the south-south zone unanimously resolving not to participate in any tournament organised by the ministry of youth and sports developmental or the constituted interim management committee for the beleaguered Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).

The stakeholders, under the aegis of the South-South Basketball Assembly, spoke in a statement on Wednesday by Ekanem Ekpenyong, chairman of Cross Rivers State Basketball Association.

According to the statement, the NBBF already has a functional constitution approved by the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA), which was approved by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the sports ministry.

It also wondered why the sports ministry will “embark on this backward course after it authorised the NBBF under the leadership of Ahmadu Musa Kida to go ahead and hold the 2022 elective congress on January 31 in Benin City”.

“So, we are baffled that the ministry is now trying to plant what we think is a seed of discord in the basketball family,” the statement read.

“Contrary to what the ministry says, there is a crisis in Nigeria basketball and what we see is an attempt to hijack the functional administration that exists at the moment for reasons that are not clear. We believe that all the reasons the ministry gave for withdrawing Nigeria from all international engagements are false, baseless and a calculated attempt at stalling the progress made in the NBBF in the past years.”

The statement described as “frivolous” the assertion by the ministry that there is no local league, saying the NBBF had organised a robust league in divisions 1 and 2 before the COVID-19 outbreak halted all contact sporting activities worldwide.

“Only the premier league that could not hold because of the court injunction instituted against the last board that was dismissed. Contrary to the ministry’s claims too, Nigeria basketball is not on the decline and in fact the sport has never witnessed the growth recorded under the Kida administration the kind of huge growth it has witnessed under the Kida administration, despite funds paucity from government,” the statement read.

The stakeholders also asked Sunday Dare, the sports minister, to immediately direct endorsement of the elective congress that was held in Benin City to enable the current board to continue its programmes.

The development comes at about the same time when the FIBA replaced Nigeria with Mali for the 2022 World Cup.