Players of the Nigeria senior national basketball team have raised alarm over plans by the outgoing board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation to shut out some of the legitimate delegates from the election.
Speaking with newsmen on Thursday at the package B of the Moshood Abiola Stadium, the player’s representatives at the outgoing board, Ejike Ugbuaja lamented that the secretary of the NBBF is still taking instructions from the president who had stepped down from the board, Musa Kida concerning the conduct of the current election.
He said that the players are not asking for too much but for the right thing to be done so as to have worthy representatives on the board, while lamenting that Nigeria basketball has suffered so very much the last four years because of poor leadership.
“Actually when I came here I was very disappointed because the election was going to go the wrong way. There is no way they will do players election and it is been hijacked by the president that is supposed to step down and contest for the position of the president.
“And Nigeria basketball federation denied players their right. I was the former player’s representative at the outgoing board and the way and manner they treated me were not right. They did not allow me to make decisions for the players or even allow me to work for the players. They would rather bring somebody that is not on the board to do my work which is wrong. And they want to conduct elections where they want to do the same thing. The secretary told me now that before he conducts the election they have to go and ask the president that stepped down, not even the minister, not even the ministry. They want to go and ask him if it is okay, which is not correct.
“They canceled the election because I think there was a fraud, and players have stood their right and we call on the government to avoid the crisis, to look into it, and to the minister to him directly I urge him to do the right thing. If he says twenty-one days let be twenty-one days. But now because of bribery or whatever and he changed it to be today. Yes, we are ready to do elections but let it be fair.
“All the players have been grieving. For four years we did not see any basketball in Nigeria. Our national team is been played by our foreign players only because there is no league in Nigeria. And me been on the board I felt so disappointed because that is not what I was expecting,”
Meanwhile, the outgoing Vice President of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Babs Ogunade has said that the disagreement surrounding the constitution should not stop the election from holding as scheduled.
Speaking also to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday said he does not believe that the election should be postponed as been canvassed by the other group because of some of the little discrepancy in the constitution of the Federation, “The fact is that constitution in any country is not a perfect document. Whatever happens, should not affect holding elections.
He continued, “The Ministry in its wisdom said categorically that there’s a constitution. If both sides agreed that there’s a constitution, now, if there are areas where there are disagreements that should not stop the election. It shouldn’t.
On why the elections of the Players and Technical Representatives could not hold on Wednesday, he said, “The election could not be held because of the rancor caused by the group who felt aggrieved.”
Ogunade also disagreed with the notion by some of the D’Tigers players that for four years basketball league did not hold in Nigeria.
“The news that there was no Basketball League in the last four years is false. Division One and two were held, the Female League held, the Premier League held under a different name, and that’s President Cup. Recall that the champions of this competition went to represent Nigeria at the BAL. We didn’t just choose a team. Fifteen teams participated in the President Cup in Ilorin.” He said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry expressed surprise that the basketball Federation was not able to hold their elections. The Chairman of the electoral committee of the sporting federation elections and a director in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Peter Nelson noted that he would look into the reason why their election did not hold.
"For those of you with me on Tuesday during the briefing, I did tell you people that those Federation that has their constitution already approved by their International body would individually be conducting their elections. As you presented this to me I will tell you that it is breaking news to me that basketball did not its election. I got a message already about volleyball, I have gotten a message about table tennis and I think more results would be coming in from their approved bodies. But for basketball that you are telling me now, I must confess to you all that it is breaking news and I am yet to get information on that, "