By Ben Efe
Nigerian basketball is forever mired in confusion so it seems since 2017, when former minister Solomon Dalung encouraged stakeholders to form parallel boards and run different elections.
There was the Tijani Umar faction and the Musa Kida side of the coin, which was backed by the Sports Minister and also FIBA Afrique, though the continental body walked a fine line of balancing act on the issue. Ultimately, Mr Umar faded out of the scene leaving Mr. Kida to ride on a high horse and dragging the sport through the dusty plain like a gunslinger who has conquered an outlaw.
Mr. Kida who sits on the financial committee of FIBA hasn’t been able to put Nigerian basketball on the bounce. This was once a sport that was attractive and buoyant back in the days with formidable basketball clubs such as Islanders, Dodan Warriors, Ebun Comets, Kano Pillars, Plateau Peaks, Mark Mentors, Gombe Bulls, Rivers Hoopers, and many others participating in a very robust league.
But that is not the case at the moment, the league is on and off, some of the clubs have even gone into oblivion. Ayo Bakare of Ebun Comets compared the scenario to a civil war, and indeed the strife is still raging.
Kida seem to have cornered the Nigeria Basketball Federation, it is like a branch of one his businesses, where other opinions and inputs do not matter. For three years running, there hasn’t been any annual general meeting, board members do not have a say in what goes on, it is a matter between Kida and his Personal Assistant and other business partners.
“There is a board but members are just figured heads,” said a basketball stakeholder.
“Take for instance the Afrobasket in Tunisia. The board knew nothing about the budget, about the players’ preparations and team players. Four of them left Thursday and their game is Friday at 8.00pm.”
Nigeria was set to miss the tournament all together, but it took some spin in the media to get the attention of the sports minister John Enoh who gave Kida a blank check to find money from whatever source to enable the team to play in Tunisia.
Kida had already drawn up a budget of N1.billion to cover a tournament of roughly six days and members of the board were alarmed by the development. The board members were also in the dark about the 1.4 billion budgeted for the Olympic qualifiers. There was also no breakdown of the N74m handed to the federation’s president for D’Tigress participation in the 2023 Afrobasket.
“It is not an Olympic qualifying tournament like people have been made to believe…the D’Tigers are already out of the Paris 2024.
“Whoever cooked that story up is only trying to rake up emotional outbursts on social media to make the sports ministry look bad.
“There’s a sports ministry directive that all sporting federations must indicate all their foreign tournaments budget in advance, but this was not in the case with the Tunisia tournament. Nigeria has already been ruled out but FIBA had to bend over to accommodate the Nigerian team.”
“By asking Kida to go and look for money and come back for reimbursement, the minister already bought the yarn, he should careful so he doesn’t get himself into trouble.”
Basketball is popular in Nigeria. It is one sport that can attract local and international sponsors and so the federation shouldn’t be going cap in hand to the sports ministry with an inflated budget that will make the budget planners at the national assembly look like amateurs in the act of budget planning.
Self interests caused the federation to lose $100,000 a year equipment endorsement with Chinese sportswear manufacturing company Peak. There is also an all expense paid training tour for the teams to China attached to the agreement.
But that deal has been thrashed by Kida in preference for AFA, run by one Ugo Udueze. D’Tigress wore the kits at the last tournament they participated in. The AFA deal has no monetary benefit pinned to it.
In all these transactions the members of the board were kept in the dark. The national team players who are meant to feel the impact of whatever sponsorship deals are not taken into consideration. It is a one man show and that is not good for a sporting federation, which should run more like a corporate organisation.
The federation cannot achieve much if stakeholders are not involved in policy making and smooth running of administration. Disagreements leading to crisis would always come to the fore if people who practice the sport on and off the field are ignored.
It is about time the government copied from other countries how federations are run by stakeholders unlike here when people who have nothing to contribute to the growth of the sport are put on the board and people who see the federation as a means of milking the government and the general public take over the mantle.
