By Martin Odiete
Despite the supposed feet achieved by both the male and the female National basketball teams at the international stage it is indeed not a true reflection of the true situation of basketball in Nigeria.
The players back home are suffering and they can no longer hold back on it and have decided to cry out for help.
One of the aggrieved players, Abdul Yahaya who against all odds decided to talk to www.theajasanews.com, lamented the poor state of basketball in the country stressing that basketball players have been rendered redundant with no consistent league to play since the crisis that have rocked the Nigeria Basketball Federation began about two years ago.
“We do not have a league, but we pray one comes up very soon. That’s why we are all at home. I played for kano pillars last two seasons. I don’t know what to attribute to why the league has not started. I don’t know whether to say it is because of the crisis in the basketball Federation. All I know is that there is no league for us to play. The basketball season starts in February and end in November and now we are in April and nobody is saying anything.
“And because of lack of active league, basketball players are suffering in Nigeria. A lot of us don’t have jobs now. I have been at home for several months, and worst still is that Kano Pillars has not paid me since then because there is no league.
The captain of the FCT contingent at the last National Sports Festival lamented that it is for this reasons that every player in Nigeria basketball wants to leave the country to play abroad.
“Everybody wants to play outside the country because once you play outside you will have more respect and you will have more money,’ he said.
Attempt to reach out to the Federal Government backed NBBF president, Musa Kida to know when the Basketball League will commence was unsuccessful as he neither picks calls none return messages sent to him.
You may want to recall that every effort to reconcile the two warring factions in the Nigeria Basketball Federation has not yielded any result as both men have stuck to their guns, a situation that has invariably affected the growth and development of the game in the country.
More pathetic is the role the International body, FIBA is playing on the matter. For reason best known to them alone, they have found it absolutely difficult to take a stand on the matter and declare which faction is the authentic board to run the Nigeria Basketball Federation.
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