Information has emerged that the caretaker President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation, Musa Kida and the ex-vice chairman, Babatunde Ogunade flew into Las Vegas on Saturday after bypassing Atlanta where the Nigerian’s Women’s Basketball Team (D’Tigress) representing Nigeria and the Continent at the Tokyo Olympics are camping even though they both have hours of layover enough to visit or shout out on Zoom.
Core Reporters report that these Teams qualified for the Olympics with the majority of Nigerian Coaches and Officials on the bench with the head coach a foreigner on D’Tigress and U.S based Nigerian head coach on D’Tigers but now that the Olympics has come around President Kida has allegedly sideline all of them.
It was reported that Musa Kida led NBBF board gave an NBA coach a blank check despite all the Federation’s debt since the 2018 FIBA women’s world cup in 2019 and the current allowances since camp opened in Atlanta.
It was also alleged that Kida promised to place priority on local players and Coaches, but has failed on that his promise rather he allegedly force AFA Sports(Apparel Company) on the Women’s Team, which he is a major investor/part owner.
According to our source, Kida is avoiding the D’Tigress, a team that has the most successful outing by any African Team on a World stage because he has no excuse to give players and officials why they have not been paid some of their allowances, bonuses, extra charges, services, totalling over $73,118.58 and other compensation not to talk of being honoured.
They always prioritize the Men’s Team, some of the new players do not even know what their President sound like or look like because of the embarrassment of the debt but also give more respect to the Men because of the shiny light that comes with the NBA players.
Meanwhile, the women have dominated Africa and have racked up more African championships than the Men’s Team since 2003 (4 Afro basket Championship which led to two World Cups in 2006 and 2018 and two Olympics in 2004 and 2021 appearances) but they seem not recognized by the federation.
It was discovered that in the recent tournaments, they were allegedly paid $50 each while the ministry approved $100 each. The initial excuse was that the Sports Ministry has not paid the team’s debt, now it is clear to everyone that the Ministry has paid all debt owed to the Basketball Federation (Now dissolved), but the Minister of youth and sports, Sunday Dare seems not to be Concern about his players’ plight after been notified.
Meanwhile, Sports, Concern Patriots/Gatekeepers are asking why are the female team been treated in that manner despite their success to the nation.
