TDPel Special Edition

Kida Reels Out Record As He Solicits For Re-election

- By Ayodele Oshikokhai

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.

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