Sports
Kida Lauds Team Over Impressive Performance
The Nigeria Basketball Federation again etched its name on silver following another winning feat by the national under-18 boys and girls teams last Sunday in Mali at the FIBA Africa 3×3 championship.
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Musa Kida commended the teams’ efforts, adding that the country has the potentials to dominate Africa and become a strong force in world basketball with adequate planning and preparation.
This he said showed in the qualification of 4 different national basketball teams for finals of FIBA organized tournaments since the new NBBF board was sworn in on the 21st of July.
Kida expressed optimism that with better preparations, the future remains bright while still eulogizing the gold medal winning D’Tigress and the D’Tigers for performing nothing short of miracles despite limited days of Afrobasket preparations.
“Only 2 weeks camping for D’Tigers, a team that played matches at the competition without really playing together and the kind of commitment the boys had, I cannot but commend them for performing this miracle.”
Kida expressed belief that Nigeria had enough talents home and abroad to produce world class athletes with 3 of its players bagging individual awards at the Afrobasket for men.
“Our captain, Ike Diogu is the best basketballer in Africa as he was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament as he scored the most points at the tournament. Ikenna Iroegbu was also picked in the tournament’s best 5 while Afam Nwamu claimed the best 3 point shooter.”
He assured that the federation will leave no stone unturned to give the D’Tigers adequate support and preparations needed for a successful world cup qualifying campaign starting in February, 2018.
He added that with early start and better preparations for the Sam Vincent coached D’Tigress, he is confident that the team will not just be at the World cup as mere participants, but will do the nation proud.
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.
