Buhari Rewards D’Tigress with N17.5m for Winning 2017 Afrobasket

President Muhammadu Buhari has redeemed his promise to reward the 2017 Afrobasket winning women’s team, D’Tigress.

Each player got N1million while five coaching crew members got N500,000 each.

In his address at the cheque presentation ceremony yesterday, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, said sports in Nigeria was moving to greater heights through the unprecedented support of Buhari.

“In Mr President’s usual way of showing appreciation to our sports men and women who made the nation proud, he received the team at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday August 30, 2017 during the Federal Executive meeting.

“History is made today as Mr President has fulfilled his promise to the heroic Afrobasket team by doling out N1million to each of the players and N500,000 to each of the officials totaling N17.5million.

Dalung thanked the president for his administration’s outstanding contributions to the development of sports in Nigeria and for his extrinsic reward in particular.

He said that Buhari’s kind gesture will have a multiplier effect on the country’s podium success in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games scheduled to hold in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 through 15 next year.

In his response, the Vicepresident of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Mr Babs Ogunade, thanked the president for redeeming his promise to reward D’Tigress for their excellence and hard work.

“Over a period of time, administrations have made promises to athletes and failed but with the change mantra, this administration promised to reward the gold winning basketball team and they have fulfilled their promise.

“Like Oliver Twist, we will always ask for more. As you are aware, we qualified for the World Cup in Spain next year and we are gearing up for that as well as the Commonwealth Games.”