The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has summoned Engineer Musa Kida and Alhaji Tijani Umar to an emergency meeting over the lingering crisis rocking the federation.
The meeting slated for Monday is to find a lasting truce to the feud in the federation over leadership crises that started four years ago that’s has almost brought basketball to its knee in the country.
On Thursday, hundreds of basketballers took to the streets in Abuja to protest against the Kida-led NBBF.
They moved from the Area 10 Old Parade, Garki, to the Unity Fountain, Maitama, demanding that Kida must be prevented from imposing himself on them and other stakeholders as president of the NBBF.
Newly elected players’ representatives and former captain of Mark Mentors basketball club Stanley Gumut wondered why Kida-led NBBF want to continuously “enslave the game of basketball in Nigeria.”
“All we are saying is that we want a new leadership that will administer Nigeria basketball professionally. The immediate past NBBF has done a lot of harm on the game.
“He now refers to us players as thugs because we always see and say things the way they are. Let Kida leave our basketball alone. For the past four years, the basketball players have got nothing to do as long as the league is concerned.
“Why will Kida influence upcoming NBBF election and he has plans to hold the election in Edo state. Why Edo state, when every other Federation held their election here in Abuja? he queried.
Most of the players who spoke to Blueprint during the protest vowed to resist fresh attempts to enslave basketball in Nigeria.
NBBF has during a divided NBBF extraordinary congress scheduled election for October 30, 2021.
