Nigeria’s recent unilateral two-year withdrawal from international basketball competitions, which was approved by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has demonstrated anew the impetuous administrative culture of the Federal Government. The Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, blamed the decision on the long-running leadership crisis in the sport. Instead of assuaging the basketball faithful, however, it has generated outrage. Buhari should quash it quickly to save the sport and the aspirations of current and prospective players.

In this particular instance, the Buhari regime is throwing away the baby with the bathwater; a leadership crisis should not automatically warrant withdrawal from the international arena. A statement from the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development said the ban was approved “in order to concentrate efforts by the government towards revamping the sport from the grassroots as well as domestic leagues, which have become moribund.” As an excuse, this is weak and unreasonable.

It is extremely difficult to understand the withdrawal and it has grave consequences that will reverberate beyond the two years that the country has elected to opt out of global competitions.

Clearly, the withdrawal violates Article 9.7 of the FIBA Statutes, which Nigeria is a signatory to. It states, “National member federations shall manage their affairs independently and with no influence from third parties. In particular, they must ensure that their officials are either elected or appointed under a democratic process for a term of office of four years.” Government interference is the crux of the matter.

To complicate an awful decision, Dare inaugurated a 10-man interim management committee. By composition, the members of the committee have been involved in the tussle at one time or the other before. This makes their task difficult.

At every turn, Nigeria misses the point, which is that on its return to the international arena after two years, there is no guarantee that the leadership tussle would have been resolved. In that case, the ban would have been futile.

The consequences of Buhari’s action are weighty. First, the national women’s team, D’Tigress, will miss the 2022 FIBA World Cup holding in Australia in September. As Africa’s three consecutive Afrobasket champions, the Nigerian ladies are the continent’s number one team but will automatically miss the World Cup. That is a shame. D’Tigress will also miss the chance to equal Senegal’s record to win four consecutive continental titles at the next African Championship. The girls put in so much personal sacrifices to achieve all this but all their hard work is now wasted. Really, it will be difficult to regain the pedestal Nigerian basketball has attained in Africa and beyond after it returns to the world stage.

Their male counterparts, D’Tigers, who represented Africa in the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, will lose their momentum and global ranking after the good run they started a few years ago when many United States-based players identified with the team to transform Nigeria into a continental force. Discouraged, some of these players might boycott D’Tigers in future.

Incidentally, the protracted leadership crisis predated Dare, who assumed office in 2019. The nasty brawling started five years ago when Musa Kida and Tijjani Umar ignited a bitter war over the Nigerian Basketball Federation presidency. Kida prevailed at the election in Abuja supervised by the ministry. Umar held a parallel election in Kano but FIBA recognised Kida’s election.

Four years after, Kida wanted another term. An NBBF congress held in Abuja agreed that an elective congress would hold in Benin, Edo State. FIBA and the ministry endorsed it. Along the line, the ministry stopped the elections, citing insecurity. At that point, it became clear that the ministry had lost control of the NBBF.

To reconcile aggrieved stakeholders, the ministry set up a ‘reconciliation committee,’ but with FIBA deadline at hand, ministry officials announced that the election be rescheduled to hold in Abuja. Apparently sensing mischief, Kida and his group, with the backing of FIBA, decided to go ahead with the Benin election on January 31 this year. Twenty-eight states were represented in Benin. Four of the seven elected representatives were also in attendance. The National Olympics Committee and FIBA were represented as observers. Same day in Abuja, Mark Igoche emerged from a parallel election that held with some current and former basketball players as ‘delegates.’ Not surprisingly, it was the Benin election which produced Kida that FIBA recognised.

Over time, Nigeria has been jumping from one crisis to another in various sports. In 1995, the late military dictator, Sani Abacha, withdrew the Super Eagles from the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations (soccer) in South Africa because the hosts were one of the nations that rebuked Nigeria for executing the Ogoni Nine. For that folly, Nigeria was banned from the 1996 and the 1998 finals.

Rather than learn from that, Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, took a similar action after the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa, withdrawing Nigeria from international competitions for two years. After much outcry, Jonathan wisely reversed himself.

The NBBF tussle is just a symptom of the deep-seated ills bedevilling sport in Nigeria. The contradiction stems from the fact that in the West, sport is run professionally with government just funding the national teams. In Nigeria, sport is still amateurish, where the government exercises primordial control. This way, sport in Nigeria will not reach its potential in terms of generating employment, income for the players, clubs and taxes for government.

By muscling out professionalism, Nigeria is its own worst enemy. According to Forbes, each NBA franchise is worth $2.48 billion, giving a fair-market value of the US league’s 30 franchises at $74.4 billion. To attain such lofty height, government should cede sports management to the private sector. That is the global best practice and the only way to avoid the constant crises that plague sports in Nigeria.

But first, Dare and Buhari should eat the humble pie and reverse themselves so that basketball can breathe again.

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