Facts have emerged as to the reasons the Federal Government withdrew from participating in international basketball competitions.
The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari last week announced the withdrawal of Nigeria from international basketball competitions for two years in order to focus on the development of the game at the grassroots level.
Sportingtribune noted that the crisis rocking the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), has been on for about five years now leading to court suspension of the national basketball league for over three years.
It was also observed that sponsors abandoned the NBBF including 12-year sponsorship of domestic women’s basketball by Zenith Bank, which led to the youthful local talents wasting away for years because of a non-functional league with all players drawn entirely from the USA and Europe.
ALSO READ: NBBF fixes January 31 for elective congress
Nigeria got banned from participating in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) owing to leadership tussle within the NBBF.
Sportingtribune also observed that a national reconciliation committee was set up by FG headed by Barrister Seyilayo Ojo in order to find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis in the NBBF but at the end, two factions still emerged as two presidents were elected the same day in the elections held in Benin and Abuja simultaneously.
Musa Kida was elected in the Benin election while Mark Igoche was elected in the Abuja election.
Another reason given for the Federal Government’s stance was that the Ministry of Sports and the Government was misrepresented many times to FIBA by elements from various factions which led to the country being threatened with a ban for interference.
The Ministry was said to have made direct and indirect efforts to reach out to many stakeholders so as to put to an end to the crisis, but all to no avail as efforts made by the Federal Government to reach out to FIBA were rejected.
“FIBA rejected Government invitations to visit Nigeria and step into the basketball crisis.
“Men’s basketball team players signed a petition that they will no longer play for Nigeria unless an individual was removed as President of NBBF. About half of the female basketball players also served notice of unwillingness to play for Nigeria again due to the leadership crisis,” Sportingtribune gathered.
The withdrawal, according to Tribunesport’s findings would enable the ministry to find solutions to issues of outstanding allowances of players which has become a constant occurrence and an embarrassment to the government.
ALSO READ: NBBF fixes January 31 for elective congress
When contacted, Personal Assistant to the Minister of Youth and Sports on media, Kola Daniels said, “the decision was taken in the best interest of the country. We cannot afford to have two presidents for a Federation and it is better we withdraw from international basketball competitions than allow FIBA to ban the country which will be embarrassing to the nation. We shall use the period of our withdrawal to resolve the issues and by that time all matters would have been resolved amicably. Don’t forget that some people were calling FIBA to ban Nigeria, but now that the Federal Government has taken this step, nobody can threaten us with a FIBA ban again.”