Former President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation and current Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Ahmadu Musa Kida recentally took stock of first term in office and concluded that kudos must go to the former board for the current ratings the national teams parade.
He started that while there were challenges that left the Men’s Premier Basketball League in the doldrums for over three years, he is confident that the needed growth of the game on the domestic front would be a reality if all hands are on deck.
In this interview he sheds more light on his first term and notes that he is particular about the steady growth and development of the game in Nigeria while maintain the top spot in Africa and a force to reckon with in world basketball.
MEN’S PREMIER LEAGUE
Those that stopped us from holding or organizing a titled Men’s Premier Basketball League competition are also the same people who are claiming we are incapable of organizing the league.
Like you all know, the Kwese League Management Board of the previous administration took us to court, stopping us from organizing the league from day one of our board. They said we do not have the title and ownership even as we were elected as NBBF board members in 2017.
I found that very funny because you know that the Nigerian Premier Basketball League by all definitions, just like in other sports is a property of the Federation.
So, up till now we have not been handed the instruments of that league. Instead we were taken to court by them with some people who participated in that league, principally the Kwara Falcons and the Gombe Bulls, joined Kwese in the suit to further reinforce what they thought they were title holders and they needed for us as NBBF to be forced to recognize them, without us sanctioning or even taking over the instruments of the league.
That was it and honestly I will tell you that I found that very distasteful because it was not in the interest of basketball or the players. It was not in the interest of the club owners and it was not in the interest of basketball visibility within the country.
So I did organize ‘The President’s Cup’, inviting basically those premier league clubs to form some form of tournament, so that Nigeria will at least produce a winner or champion to represent us at continental level.
I did one edition, but this same group returned to court and I was almost cited for contempt of the court. I was a few days of actually being arrested because of it. I am a very law abiding citizen of Nigeria, so when I saw that I had to leave it. Every twist and turn that I made I was shackled completely and so I could not do anything.
This is how it is that we had to wait until February this year when the court finally decided to dismiss the case. Dismissing the case is even bitter for me because it meant that there was no reason why they should have even taken us to court in the first place. It meant that we wasted three years of no league.
With the suit dispensed with and the elite league retuning, Kida said he’s looking forward to better years for Nigerian basketball.
ACHIEVEMENT
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.
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.
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.
All the other cadres of the league were running perfectly well with robust sponsorships except for the Men’s Premier League.
ON SPORT MINISTER
He however thanked Sports Minister Sunday Dare for riding the tide with the board during that trying period.
We want to in all sincerity thank the Honourable minister of Sports, Hon. Sunday Dare, ‘Agba Akin’, who every day I can tell you, looks for the best way of setting the environment and encouraging the environment to be the best it can.
We all know it’s not easy, that Africans and Nigerians expect that every match we play we should win. Of course, it is his responsibility to ensure we win; but it is also his responsibility to make sure that he allows us as administrators and create an enabling environment for us to do our jobs.
So on that note, I want to sincerely thank him for his understanding, said and not said, and also for his encouragement, and his own ministry which we have had expert opinions coming from themselves, very tested people in the ministry.
TOKYO OLYMPICS
That we represented the continent in both male and female teams in Tokyo show that we have not done badly. People are saying that we did not win a single game but I was touched by the commentator prior to the Olympics when we defeated U.S.A on their soil.
The commentator recalled the record defeat of Nigeria in 2012, a 156-73 blow blowout of Nigeria. In Tokyo, U.S.A struggled to beat us 81-72 in the Women’s game. And you tell me we are not progressing. We have a world class coach and they are now beginning to fear us. We can only get better.