Sports

NBBF Builds Stronger Bond With FG, As Domestic Basketball Activities Resume In Earnest

Published

3 years ago

April 10, 2022

Joel Ajayi

The board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation on weekend met in Lagos to chat about the way forward ahead of the 2022 domestic and international basketball season.

The meeting presided over by its President; Engr Musa Kida, lasted four hours. It provided an opportunity for all members to come together physically to chart a way forward for the next four years as the board thanked the Federal Government for their usual support towards developing sports in Nigeria.

While addressing journalists, he disclosed that things have started taking shape with the domestic activities set to tip-off after the traditional stakeholders’ meeting.

“The fact that we can meet today and the Secretary-General who is a ministry staff member is here and the Assistant SG is also here means that the ministry is already participating in what we do. Going forward, I think it is much brighter than we have experienced in the past, where we are going to have the desired collaboration with the ministry to execute our programs”.

The federation maintained that it has no intention of contesting or competing with the Ministry of Sports in carrying out its statutory functions as the supervisory body but is focused on working out a seamless synergy to accelerate basketball development and growth in Nigeria.

“I will want to make it clear that we, as a board, have no interest whatsoever in contesting with the ministry in its sphere of statutory influence.”

“They have their supervisory and statutory job to do by way of supervising bodies like us but they have allowed us to constitute ourselves into federations that can run these activities within the territory of the country”, Kida said.

“I do think we are helping them deliver on basketball development in the country. Going forward, I think the proof is very evident, we are all on board here.”

Present at the meeting were Engr Musa Kida (President), Babs Ogunade (Vice President), Adamu Jalong (North Central Representative), Olumide Oyedeji (South West Representative), Ugo Udezue (South East Representative), Prof Musa Yakassai (NapherSD), Felix Awogu (Sponsors Representative) and Victor Okoro (Military and Para-Military Representative).

The trio of Col. Samuel Ahmedu (International Representative), Prof. Florence Adeyanju (NAWISS Representative), and Alhaji Abba Kaka Abdulkadir (North East Representative) all joined via zoom.

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Sports

Fresh Air, As Dikko Resumes As NSC Chairman, Unveils 3-Pillar For Sports Growth

Published

7 hours ago

October 30, 2024

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The newly appointed Chairman of National Sports Commision Malam Shehu Dikko on Wednesday officially assumed office unveiled 3 Pillars to growth sport sector.

Just last week President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Shehu Dikko as Chairman of the National Sports Commission.

Speaking shortly in Abuja after outgoing Minister of Sports Senator John Enoh officially handed over the affairs of the Country’s Sports to him in a brief ceremony in Abuja.

He expressed that the Country’s journey towards a sustainable Sports Economy has begun.

According to him, history has a way of coming full circle because in 2008 I was a consultant to the House of Representatives and was responsible for the drafting of the National Sports Commission Bill and about 16 years down the line i have here with the assignment to implement the work I assisted to put together”.

“The objective of Mr President is to harness the full potentials of the Sports Economy in Nigeria”.

“And we have to first change our mindset from the fixation of just competitions and winning medals and come back and fix our Domestic Sports Development”.

“When we set the foundation right the results and the winning of medals will naturally come in a sustainable manner and that should be the new mindset”.

“We cannot continue to run in cycles so we need to have a different approach from day one because in my view and indeed the view of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, competitions is what we call “Consumption” because we just take scarce resources and burn out abroad without any impact on the domestic sports development and the Nigerian Economy.

“But we have to go back to “Production” which is deliberate Sports Development, where we set the structure right, set the framework and put together good parameters to have a sustainable Sports Development which will naturally give us a solid Sports Economy and indeed guaranteed competitive participation at all competitions and medals.

“This is the reason why our administration will be focus on three Pillars including running Sports as a National Asset, that is entitled to special privileges, regulations and concessions to drive growth and development to open its potentials to be a key driver of the economy across all sectors, a vehicle for achieving national cohesion and projection of the positive and unique attributes of our culture and national identity “.

” We have to also work on Legislations and Regulations so as to set the framework to enable the Industry to grow effectively like what happened in the communications industry some years back”.

” The other Pillar is investing in purposeful world class infrastructures that will provide an enabling environment for Growth. These infrastructures must be deliberate with maintenance culture and span from world class infrastructure for professional sports to community infrastructure to drive grassroots sports and mass participation across the country.

” The thinking of Mr President is that , after having some of all these in place we should be able to measure the Country’s Sports by its contribution to the nation’s GDP by at least three percent and the number of jobs sports and its value chain are providing in country in the next four to five years and indeed our competitiveness across all competitions and tournaments.

Thus it’s a fantastic decision for Mr. President to approve the return of the National Sports Comission to drive the process and objectives in line to the best international practices and standards devoid of any beureucratic bottlenecks but absolute professionalism.”

In his remark, the outgoing Sportst Minister Senator John Enoh expressed: “For me it’s farewell, it’s bye bye and for mallam shehu Dikko it’s welcome that is what life is all about, there is time for everything.

He however thumbed president Tinubu for scrapping Sports Ministry and bring back the NSC to enable sports to grow in the country, saying that the decision remain a great positive that will grow Sports.

On his remark, the most senior staff of the ministry, Director of Medicine Paul Onyedo pledged staff support to work with incoming Chairman to the best of their ability. “We are ready to give our best.”

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