World basketball body FIBA website has reflected the name of Musa Ahmadu Kida as the new NBBF president thereby replacing the name of the body’s former president, Tijana Umar. Meanwhile, FIBA has given the NIgeria till November 30 to resolve the crisis in the NBBF or face sanctions, while a task force would be set up to run the sport.
Nigerian basketball is current witness a leadership crisis following the election in Kano on June 12 that declared Umar as the winner of the Kano election. as well as the one in Abuja on June 13 where Ahmadu-Kida emerged as president. The Abuja election was supervised by the sports ministry and the Nigeria Olympic Committee,
Despite the sports ministry and the NOC’s endorsement of the Abuja election, Umar, who had earlier served as NBBF president for two terms, maintains that he is the authentic leader of the country’s basketball.
However, the latest update on FIBA website has come just days after the body sent a letter signed by its Secretary-General, Patrick Baumann, to Ahmadu-Kida and Umar that it had not recognised both elections and called on both factions to resolve the crisis internally under the auspices of the Nigeria Olympic committee (NOC).
Also listed alongside Ahmadu-Kida are Babatunde Ogunade (executive vice-president) and Chimezie Asiegbu (Secretary-General).
Last week, FIBA said it would communicate between now and November 30 with “the persons named as board members on June 13 namely Musa Ahmadu-Kida as NBBF president and Babatunde Ogunade as vice-president”.
The world body however maintained that its communication with the Ahmadu-Kida group “shall not be understood as a recognition by FIBA of the management elected on June 13”.
Two e-mails: nigeriabballfederation@yahoo.com and musakida@yahoo.com were also displayed on the website as the official correspondence channels of the NBBF.
Discussing the implication of this development on asenntv’s weekly programme, Sportsweekly, sports analyst Idada Joachim likened this to what happened in football and expressed suspicion that the crisis maybe connected to the increased sponsorship’s’ which basketball has received in recent years.
