It was shameful that the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development could speak out after the female basketball players (D’Tigress) exposed the outgoing president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), Ahmed Musa Kid who has refused to pay their backlog of arrears owed them for over four years.
The African champions, in a viral video, attributed their woeful performance at the Olympics as a result of maltreatment they received from the leadership of the NBBF.
They claimed that the NBBF is owing to them backlogs of allowance and bonuses since 2017, and were been abandoned by the outgoing Kida-led Nigeria Basketball ahead of the games.
D’Tigress players in one voice have threatened to boycott the World Cup qualifiers coming up in February. Nigeria’s D’Tigress retained their Women’s Afrobasket crown with a 70-59 win over a spirited Mali at the Palais Polyvalent du Sports in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital on Sunday, September 26, 2021.
The win secured the team’s third consecutive Afrobasket title after previous victories in Mali in 2017 and Senegal in 2019. The feat that qualified them for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
The players accused Kida of coming around them to celebrate victories for his political gains.
Meanwhile, Kida on several forums claimed that the Federation does not owe D’Tigress.
But the players insisted that their allowance, bonuses and training grants which the ministry is responsible for the entire athletes that were in the Tokyo games were not paid to them despite submitting their account details
They said donations made by banks for players, officials, volunteers, etc dating back to 2018 have not been paid to the players.
According to the players who spoke in a zoom meeting, “They have not paid us $500 each for FIBA World Cup players/officials entitlements and $1,000 each for finishing in the FIBA world cup final.
“They have not also paid us $1,000 each for winning Afrobasket in Senegal 2019 players/officials
“$300-$400 which is the balance of Olympic qualifiers in Mozambique. We were supposed to be paid $100 per day. And $2000 training grants for Olympics games in Tokyo for players only.
“And $100,000 donations by 3 Nigeria banks to all the players and officials that make the D’Tigress Olympic possible (final roster or not). (The men also has $100,000 assigned to them, making a total of $200,000).
Meanwhile, the players opined that the ministry and the NBBF should pay their $73.118.78 for bonuses and allowances, including $288,000 grants for players and $100,000 (bank donations for training which they yet to received.
However, the ministry of sports has claimed that its officials did not share monies belonging to the D’Tigress, saying that the money was kept in the NBBF account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Judging from the claim by Kida that the NBBF was not owing anybody including the D’Tigress and with this revelation by the players and also the claim by the ministry that the money is intact in the CBN, it is obvious that both Musa Kida and Sunday Dare, the minister of youth and sports development have much to tell Nigerians about the D’Tigress unpaid arrears..
