Kida Emerges NBBF’s President

Elections into the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) board, organised for another faction of the sport’s family by the federal ministry of Youths and Sports, failed to hold as scheduled in Abuja last Tuesday.
Rather, it was held at Ibro Hotel later than earlier scheduled, with the ministry announcing in a statement later that Musa Kida, the Rivers State Basketball Association Chairman, had emerged as President.
Tidesports source gathered that a storm had been brewing since the Federation disagreed with the ministry on the guidelines for the elections.
This had led to the Tijani Umar-led board saying it would not conduct its elections on June 13 as scheduled by the ministry which had within three weeks twice redeployed the federation’s secretaries-general.
The NBBF leadership however went on to conduct its elections in Kano, on Monday where Umar emerged as President.
The ministry was quick to describe the Kano elections as illegal, insisting that the Abuja elections of Tuesday would go on as scheduled.
However, the elections venue at the Abuja on Tuesday  National Stadium in Abuja was empty when other federations’ elections began.
No accreditation commenced, while there were no delegates or contestants as at 8 a.m. when accreditation of all other sports federations’ elections began.
News later filtered in around 1 p.m. at the Abuja National Stadium that the elections were ongoing at one hotel in Wuse.
Hours later, a sports ministry statement, signed by the Director of Press, Tolu Makinde,  indicated that the elections were held, but it did not disclose where it was held.
According to the statement, Kida, who was the South-South representative emerged as President unopposed.
“He was elected unopposed in an election conducted in line with the guidelines approved by the ministry of sports,’’ Makinde said in the statement.
He added that Babatunde Ogunade emerged as Vice-President, while other board members included Osita Nwachukwu, Adamu Sirajo, Baba Bukar, and Isah Umar.
The rest are Adamu Deshi, Ejike Ugboaja, Musa Garba, Sam Ahmedu and Felix Awogu, who are representatives of technical bodies, players, NAPHER-SD, FIBA and sponsors.