NBBF decamps U-16 team, reaffirms commitment to players’ welfares
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Ahmadu Musa Kida has reaffirmed his commitment to players’ welfare during his tenure.
Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National stadium immediately after training of the Senior Women’s National team who are preparing for the 2017 Afrobasket competition in Mali, Kida described Nigerian players both home and abroad as his personal clients as the NBBF president.
“One thing I have always maintained is that the players are my personal clients and preferred customers as the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation. They are the people who I swore an oath to make sure I create the best enabling environment to exhibit their talents”
He lamented the hard, the decision of the federation to decamp the Junior D’Tigress who had been in camp for about two weeks in preparation for the FIBA Africa U-16 Women’s Championship in Mozambique under the watchful eyes of the team’s assistant coach, Tony Nelson.
Kida said the move became necessary when it was obvious that the team would not be able to participate at the competition which will start tomorrow after the federation could not complete the team’s registration before the deadline by FIBA Africa.
Despite all spirited attempts by the new board to cover up for lost time before their official inauguration, Kida said FIBA Africa decided to kick out Nigeria from the cadet competition citing rules governing the competition.
He said the federation would have loved to keep the 15-man team in camp, but due to the financial status of NBBF, they had no choice but to tell the team to reconvene in another three weeks for a cadet zonal competition in Togo. Credentials of FOSLA academy players who have done their Senior Secondary Schools Examination and sat for their University Matriculation Examination are underway for provisional admission screening into Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun state.
This was spawned as the Vice Chancellor of Fountain University Osogbo, Professor Usman Abdulateef ordered the University registrar to ascertain those that met the minimum qualifications for their courses during visit by the management of FOSLA academy led by the former President of the Nigeria Football Federation Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi.
The University don who welcomed their visit, described the FOSLA Academy as a wellarticulated project that all wellmeaning Nigerians should key into.
He said that his University is happy to be associated with the Academy, as his young University will benefits immensely from the products that the Academy will give to them. He commended the Academy’s Proprietor Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi for his humanitarian and patriotic services to the country.
Earlier, the Proprietor of the Academy Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi who led the delegation, had informed the Vice Chancellor that their visit to Osun state was to finalized the earlier agreement reached with the University, most especially now that the first batch of the students have finished their Senior Secondary Schools Examination and sat for their University Matriculation Examination.