The initiator of Mark D Ball Basketball Championship, Igoche Mark has said that the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is the cause of the crisis currently rocking the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF.
Speaking on Arise Television today, Mark fingered the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare as the architect of the crisis currently rocking the NBBF.
Explaining, Mark said the ministry in a correspondence with the former NBBF president, Musa Kida, addressed him (Kida) as ‘president’ after the board has been dissolved.
He stated that the NBBF election was to hold last October, but the ministry wadded in and set up a Caretaker Committee, which Kida was made the chairman.
According to him, Kida appointed Directors of Sports in some states and those he feels he could lord over, as Congress election delegates to Benin, Edo state. “Do we expect credible election in such circumstance? he queried.
“The circumstance under which he called the congress is abnormal, as the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare appointed him the Caretaker Committee chairman and not the NBBF president, as his tenure has elapsed and the federation has been dissolved.
“The ministry that was expected to do the right thing, just looked the other way. Should the ministry allow the falsified NBBF constitution to be used and the election goes ahead in Benin, Edo state, that means Basketball is still going to suffer for another four years,” he pointed out.
According to him, Basketball has suffered in the last four years, and said the players are going to suffer the more, as they would be idle for another four years.
“Both the male and female national teams – D’Tigers and D’Tigress players have vowed not to play again and the Fiba ban many have been scared of, is inevitable. There is the World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers, and if the players are not there, the ban is still going to come. At this point, dirty politics is being introduced, which will not contribute to the development of the game. I am into basketball development, and I support the players in their quest for the development of the game”.
He was emphatic when he said the ministry is backing Kida, as he referred to a correspondence on January 16, 2022 in which Kida was addressed as the NBBF president. “That’s enough evident that the ministry is supporting and has given him (Kida) the go-ahead to do what he is doing. The minister set up a reconciliation committee perhaps in his bid to resolve the issues among the stakeholders, and the committee has submitted its report without reaching out to the stakeholders”.
