It is unfortunate that the high-flying D’Tigress that won the AfroBasket three times consecutively and also recently won a ticket to feature at the FIBA World Cup will not be able to compete at the global stage due to the recent directive by the Federal Government to withdrawal from international basketball for two years.

After an evaluation of the crisis in the national basketball scene, we admit that something has to give. The domestic scene is porous and almost completely dead. Even when the female league sponsors, Zenith Bank, were eager to stage the national women’s league last year, the administrators were busy fighting for the soul of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).

We must admit that the decision of the FG might not be popular, it might look harsh but we make bold to say it is surely the best based on the situation in Nigeria in the past five years. In fact, all the warring factional heads deserve to be banned from taking part in any aspect of the game going forward. A member of the recently set up Interim Management Committee (IMC), Coach Adewunmi Aderemi, said it was important to revive the domestic league and set up a template for catch-themyoung programmes. “Many players and coaches are now jobless, no salaries, no allowance because there are no competitions.

I was in the technical crew of the female national team that qualified for the World Cup but the truth is we need vibrant programmes to help the players at home. The international events have not yielded anything for the country because all the players and coaches are abroad. Charity begins at home. The FG decision is great so that we get it right to come up again,” Aderemi said.

At a time like this, it is more disturbing that the two factions are still making various moves to further fuel the already bad situation we have found ourselves in basketball. The stakeholders currently blaming the government for the ban should have cautioned the factions to come together as one before the issue degenerated to this level. It is indeed a shame! On May 12, the Federal Government announced the withdrawal of the country from international basketball competitions for two years.

The decision was taken following the leadership crisis rocking basketball in the past five years in which two factions are locked in battle over the mandate of who controls the game. Opinions have been divided because the two national senior teams are on the cards for their respective FIBA World Cup events. We are aware that the NBBF has a mandate to oversee the operations and internal matters only and not the external or international engagements.

For example, the ministry of sports is in charge of the national basketball team to the FIBA World Cup while the Nigeria Olympic Committee takes charge of the basketball events at the Olympics. For the five years of the leadership crisis, the domestic league players and coaches have been unemployed without competitions. The club owners feel they cannot continue to pay salaries of players when they are just idle without competitions. Apart from the withdrawal, the FG through the ministry of sports has named an Interim Management Committee to run the affairs of the game while a national U-18 basketball competition is already billed to start on June 15.

The domestic club competitions will also be back while efforts will be made to bring in sponsors now that a neutral interim body is in place. The issue of independence of the federations is clear. How many of them have enough financial muscle to run their programmes without government funding? To be independent, you do not have to depend on government subsidy or monies to run your affairs.

But till date, the ministry of sports in Nigeria still gives federations running costs to maintain their secretariats, and even still pays for international engagements. And so how can FIBA claim independence for a federation like NBBF that cannot pay its own bills? It is no news that the federations, including basketball, go sucking the breast of the ministry for food to survive. If left alone, they will die of starvation. The threat of FIBA ban letters is always funny because there is no recognised body as yet.

The FG wrote to FIBA about the decision to withdraw from international basketball and rather than reply to the FG, one of the factions came up with a response from FIBA, it is ridiculous and also obvious that there is FIBA Nigeria in existence. The ministry of sports met with the factions seven times to resolve the crisis but to no avail. FIBA visited Nigeria and went back, yet the two factions were still fighting selfishly over legitimacy. We commend the ministry of sports for the composition of the IMC but we must stress that the interim body must get it RIGHT!