Sports
No Crisis In Basketball Federation – Kida
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Musa Kida, said that there was no crisis in the federation.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, Kida said the crisis was merely a perception of the public.
Tidesports recalls that on June 12, the National Sports Federations Elections for NBBF had two elections one in Kano and another in Abuja.
The Kano election had Tijani Umar emerge as the president while Kida emerged as president in the Abuja election.
The Minster of Sports, Solomon Dalung, however, annulled the Kano election on the grounds that it had no backing of the ministry or the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC).
FIBA Africa in their letter to the NOC said specifically that it did not recognise any of the two groups, but would send correspondence to only the Musa Kida group.
The body also gave the NOC and NBBF November as deadline to resolve their differences.
The NBBF president said, however, that there had been no complaint against any individual in the basketball circle.
“The perception that there is a crisis is in the minds of a few stakeholders. I don’t see what is happening as crisis,’’ he said.
On the issue of the letter from FIBA Africa, Kida said that the letter recognised him as the president since they (FIBA) agreed to correspond with him.
“If you look at the letter, it concluded everything by agreeing to send correspondence through my board and this I think is a proof of acceptance,’’ he said.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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