Buhari Receives D’Tigress, Announces Cash Rewards for Players, Officials
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday received the victorious female Nigerian basketball national team, D’Tigress, who won the 2017 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Tournament in Mali and qualified for the 2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Spain.
While thanking the D’Tigress for doing Nigeria proud, Buhari announced a cash award of N1 million to each of the players and N500,000 to each coach.
The President made the announcement while hosting the victorious players and officials before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari directed the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, to ensure the money is released to the players and the officials promptly.
He assured the team of Federal Government’s support to ensure that they excel in Spain.
Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, attributed the team’s victory to the new leadership in the federation who are determined to bring success to the game in the country.
D’Tigress Captain, Aisha Mohammed, expressed her excitement over the reward to the players and officials, stressing that it would spur them to go for gold in Spain next year.
“We feel overjoyed that the President invited us to come here to the Presidential Villa. We are excited. We promise to give Nigeria more victories and by the grace of God we will go to Spain and win.
The President of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Musa Ahmadu Kida, attributed the success of the team to the democratic process that has returned to the federation.
He added that if the team could achieve such result in three weeks of the new executive, more of such were in the offing.
Kida who is the deputy managing director of Total Nigeria Plc said that the magic in the team’s victory “is that this time there was an election that was very democratic and we are actually the result of democracy in sports where the true stakeholders who have the passion for the game are the people administering the game.”