Nigeria may have made appreciable progress in international basketball but the leadership crisis that has rocked the national governing body following the 2017 sports federation elections is yet to abate.
The then president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF Tijanni Umar blamed the immediate past leadership of the Sports Ministry for the impasse and calls on the current leadership to ensure that procedures for a more transparent approach in line with regulations of the world governing body of each of the various sports.
Two years after several attempts to resolve the NBBF leadership crisis, which occurred in the aftermath of the 2017 National Sports Federations election, ended in a deadlock, the then president Tijanni Umar is speaking for the first time.
He claimed that the leadership of the federal ministry of sports at that time compromised the guidelines of the election to suit personal interest.
‘we were been governed by the International Olympic Committee charter and the provisions of FIBA regarding how you run federations but it wasn’t what that individual understood or wanted to do, he was more interested in what to get from the federations; who is heading the federations; is he our person; can we actually control him; can we put things under him; can we expect returns from him; this is something i would never do’
In 2017 just before the elections, the NBBF secured a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal, but all that is gone no thanks to the crisis.
‘when we demonstrated the possibilities that basketball can get to in Nigeria, all those things that we can achieve and attain in early 2017 by bringing in resources about two million dollar; of course they thought that we had all the money in our account, so hell was let lose all they wanted was how we were going to share the money with them.
I believe from day 1 and i still believe that why Nigeria basketball grew to the height we attained was that we maximised resources.’
Umar however insists that his love for the sport will see him participate in the next elections into the board of the NBBF.
‘I am an interested party in the elections, i am waiting for the elections, i am consulting, widely as usual, and we love basketball.’
Despite the lack of competitive games in the domestic league particularly the men’s top tier league the country’s men and women team qualified for the now postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, an unprecedented achievement which Umar says is the proceeds of the pathway his board put in place.
However Umar now a federal permanent secretary wants the sports ministry to ensure that the welfare of team Nigeria athletes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are priortised unlike what happened in Rio 2016.
