Kida bows to pressure, suspends NBBF Elective Congress

Former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Musa Kida has finally bowed to pressure and announced the indefinite suspension of NBBF’s Elective Congress earlier scheduled for Saturday.

Kida disclosed this through a communique of an Extra-Ordinary Congress of the NBBF held via zoom by Kida and state basketball associations on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) had on Monday directive an indefinite suspension of the NBBF Elective Congress.

The Ministry also ordered the immediate dissolution of the Kida-led NBBF Caretaker Committee ahead of the federation’s elections scheduled for Benin on Saturday.

Following its extraordinary congress held on October 9 in Abuja, the Musa Kida-led caretaker committee had approved Saturday for elections into the federation’s board.

The congress also ratified Benin as the host city for the NBBF Elective Congress, while also adopting the proposed Electoral Committee to be chaired by Lanre Glover.

Kida, who initially rejected the ministry’s directive and insisted that the elections would go on as scheduled, has now made a U-turn and decided to respect the decision of the ministry.

According to the communique, Kida admonished the Congress to respect and appreciate the ministry’s advice to postpone the Elective Congress.

He explained that the decision to respect the ministry’s directives was to allow all the concerns raised over the NBBF board elections for the 2021-2025 term to be addressed.

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The communique said that following the meeting, the congress agreed as follows:

“That, as advised by the FMYSD, the Elective Congress be postponed to a later date, Congress unanimously agreed to postpone the Elective congress by a few weeks.

“Congress mandated the NBBF President to engage the FMYSD in a positive discussion for a free, fair, transparent and successful elections to be held to usher in a new Board.”

It also said the Congress, in a vote of confidence passed on Kida, authorised him to engage the FMYSD in discussions.

This was to address the ministry’s concerns to ensure a safe and secure Elective Congress, as prescribed by the 2019 NBBF approved Constitution.