Kida Reels Out Record As He Solicits For Re-Election

Poland’s first March for Life since a landmark decision on abortion by Poland’s constitutional court came into effect earlier this year.The Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw ruled on Oct. 22, 2020, that abortion for fetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. The ruling, which cannot be appealed, is expected to lead to a significant reduction in the number of abortions in the country.Abortion remains legal in Poland in cases of rape or incest and in cases of risk to the mother’s life after the ruling.Polish President Andrzej Duda met with the organizers of the march, who are affiliated with the Center for Life and the Family and the Christian Social Congress, on Sept. 19. Duda welcomed the constitutional court's ruling last year saying that “abortion for so-called eugenic reasons should not be allowed in Poland.”Family News ServiceThe March for Life and the Family, which usually takes place in 140 Polish cities, was limited to Warsaw this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.The organizers of this year’s scaled-down march selected “fatherhood” as a key theme of the event.“We want to send a signal not only to the whole of Poland, but also to the whole world that there are men in Poland who take responsibility, that they do not run away from it,” Pawel Ozdoba, one of the event’s organizers said at the opening of the March for Life and the Family.Family News ServiceArchbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the president of the Polish bishops’ conference, expressed good wishes to the participants of the march in a social media post. The archbishop invoked two recently beatified Polish Catholic figures as examples of supporting the right to life. Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland who led the Church’s resistance to communism, and Blessed Elżbieta Róża Czacka, a blind nun who revolutionized care for the visually impaired, were beatified the weekend prior in Warsaw.“May Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski and Blessed Mother Czacka support you in showing that everyone has the right to life, and the family is the most precious good of humanity,” Gądecki wrote on Twitter.A Mass was offered at the conclusion of the March in Warsaw’s Church of the Holy Cross.Family News Service“The Primate of the Millennium was so often called the ‘Father of the Nation,’ hence the connection. We wanted to show that Polish fathers are responsible,” Ozdoba said.“A responsible and strong father and a strong man are needed not only by the family, but also by the whole society,” he said.

Kida has stated with confidence that he deserves to be re-elected for a second term in office while reeling out his scorecard which he believes is an achievement that qualifies him for re-election. The vastly experienced administrator said he is the right man for the job and truly deserves another chance in transforming Nigeria basketball into a global brand that will appeal to all. According to Kida, his NBBF-led board did superbly well despite suffering a very torrid first term due to the infighting and litigations they had to grapple with. “Sincerely on a scale of ten I think I will score my board eight and the reason is very simple. This is because for us as a board to achieve all that we did even in the face of the many contending issues that we had to confront with speaks volume of our administrative credentials. “From the very day we assumed office it has been one court stop order after another. Though we could have achieved much more without those injunctions but we didn’t allow them to deter us from giving our best. “We may not be exactly where we desire in basketball but I think we are on the right track and need to be allowed to continue the good job of shaping our basketball”, he disclosed. Speaking further, the amiable administrator and former Total Oil director, stated that, “under my watch we have succeeded in making Nigeria basketball very attractive, so much so, that Americans now want to play for Nigeria, which otherwise was the other way round. Kida also revealed that, “for the first time ever in Africa, Nigeria represented the continent at the Tokyo Olympics basketball event in both male and female categories, as D’Tigers and D’Tigress picked their tickets. “The country, he continued, also ranked number one in Africa for both the men’s and women’s basketball, which is no mean feat. “All the other cadres of the league were running perfectly well with robust sponsorships except for the men’s premier league which we were stopped from running by the court, but is now on after the court threw away the cases against us”, Kida concluded. The election is billed to hold September 30, in Abuja and it will involve all the sports federations in the country except the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) which had its elections in June this year. According to the Sports ministry, six federations that already have their constitutions ratified by the international bodies will use the same in conducting their elections, while the other federations will use the sports ministry’s guidelines for their elections. The six federations are Nigeria Aquatics Federation, Nigeria Basketball Federation, Nigeria Boxing Federation, Cycling Federation of Nigeria, Nigeria Shooting Federation and Nigeria Table Tennis Federation.