75 Universities For Maiden NUGA-AMK Foundation

The Chairman, Basketball in the Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA), Prof. Adamu Ahmed, says 75 universities will participate in the maiden NUGA Ahmadu Musa Kida (AMK) Foundation 3-A-Side basketball tournament.
Ahmed told newsmen in Kaduna last Monday that NUGA was collaborating to begin the novel annual competition, adding that the sponsorship was a breakthrough for university basketball and NUGA Games format.
He expressed optimism that the tournament would bring a new lease of life in university sports.
He explained that the 75 universities were expected to feature male and female teams making it the largest gathering of basketball teams in Nigeria.
“The maiden edition is slated to hold through two qualifying rounds at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) from February 16 to February 19, and the Ahmadu Bello University from February 23 to February 25.
“The final is billed for Abuja from March 2 to March 4, where the teams that qualified will battle for honours.
“A total of 43 teams are expected to compete at the UNILAG centre and 32 at the ABU centre.
“Five men and five women teams are to qualify from each centre to the final round of 10 men and 10 women teams at Abuja.
“The winners in each category are to represent Nigeria at the World Universities Tournament,’’ he said.
Ahmed said that the AMK-NUGA 3-A-Side tournament is one step toward instituting single sports annual tournaments to keep university students active all year round.
“AMK Foundation is proud to provide support for this transition, with its president having also suffered from the inadequacies of the biennial NUGA format, while playing active basketball at ABU.
“NUGA has historically maintained a biennial all comers games which has been criticised for limiting player development within the university system,’’ he said.
The AMK Foundation is a non-profit charity organisation with interest in youth empowerment through sports.
The President of the Foundation, Musa Kida, is a former senior national basketball player and board member of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), who also serves on the Board of Trustees of the ABU Basketball Foundation.
It could be recalled that AMK Foundation has for two years running been the sole sponsor of the West Africa 3-A-Side basketball tournament.
The foundation has also been the sponsor of the South-South 3-A-Side Basketball championship for two years, and last year, the IDP 3-A-Side Classics in Maiduguri.
The NUGA Basketball chairman said that the annual tournament would be used to select Nigeria’s team to the Global University 3-A-Side tournament each year.
Ahmed is a one-time national basketball team player and Chairman, Technical Committee of the NBBF.