Izuchukwu Okosi
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By Izuchukwu Okosi
Former Chairman of the defunct Caretaker Committee of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, Musa Kida has admonished Nigeria’s Sports Ministry to retrace its steps and backdown from their stance to take over the running of the sport.
Kida’s role in the administration of basketball has been a rather controversial topic and he called the ministry’s planned action as “illegal.”
“Sec, I just warn you that your recent actions will potentially eventually cause a huge embarrassment to Nigeria Basketball and the country at large as you have side stepped the NBBF in all your recent undertaking,” Kida said in a letter sent to the sports ministry, a copy of which was made available to the media.
“It will excite you to know that the PEAK sponsorship with the NBBF has been for the provision of uniform on a tournament-by-tournament basis, the last being the carry forward the 2020 Olympics held this year, as the contract itself has expired last year.
“You are also aware of the enoumours challenges with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the last batch of Olympic Uniform this year. It required the serious interventions of the Hon Minister FMYSD with the Federal Ministry of Finance to make it reality.
”The official receipt Customs and clearing charges that the NBBF had to incur in getting the uniforms out of Apapa Wharf was more than N6m, which I fully paid that’s yet to be refunded from the Ministry.
“The remnants are very incomplete pieces of outfit as with other consignments in the past. I would urge you to process my refund efficiently and once that’s done, I can handover the remnants of the kits from Tokyo Olympics.”
The Ministry of Finance and Sports Ministry intervened before the Peak kits were released by the Nigeria Customs ahead of the D’Tigress and D’Tigers 2020 Olympics participation were they all crashed out at the preliminary round.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
