Basketball
Nigeria sets up a repeat of 2021 Afrobasket final as D’Tigress remains on course for 5th straight Title
…..As NSC charges team to remain focused ahead of last dance on Sunday
It is finally down to the best two teams for the ultimate prize of being crowned the 2025 Afrobasket champions as record chasing Nigeria D’Tigress take on Mali in Sunday’s final at the Palais de Sports de Treichville.
The Nigerian Team had to dig deep to overcome their perennial rivals Senegal 75-68 points in a thrilling encounter that saw the team came from an early nine points deficit in the first quarter and also 12 points margin in the third quarter to pull off an outstanding forth Quarter to silence the overwhelming roaring crowd.
After a close first half which ended 22 – 17 and 21- 20 points in favour of Nigeria , the Senegalese totally dominated the third quarter 21-9 points to go into the final quarter with a six point advantage but Rene Wakama’s girls turned the screw again to see off the game with a devastating 13 points margin.
The win stretched the Nigeria Women’s team record to 28th straight wins at the Afrobasket since 2015 and just one game away from a five straight African title.
Mali on the other hand made a light work of debutants South Sudan in the other semi final 76-50 points as they eye their second Afrobasket title, having only won it in 2007 in Senegal.
Sunday’s final will be a repeat of the 2021 final in Cameroon which D’Tigress won 70-59 points.
Meanwhile the leadership of the National Sports Commission, NSC, has charged the girls to remain focused and complete the job in the final on Sunday.
Chairman of the NSC Mallam Shehu Dikko said ” this is an history making team and I am very proud to say these girls are a true reflection of the never say die Nigerian spirit because of how they fought with everything to beat the Senegalese”.
” The girls didn’t allow the pressure of the opposing crowd to overwhelm them as they stayed calm and disciplined throughout the match even when they were down in the third quarter “.
The Director General of the NSC, Hon Bukola Olopade, also reflected on the breathtaking game against Senegal with huge confidence ahead of thr final against Mali.
” I was not surprised that the Senegal game was very tough for our girls because of how we have dominated them by beating them in the final of three of the four consecutive titles we had won”.
” They were very determined to stop the losing run this time but our team showed experience, calmness and aura of a true champion to maintain their superiority and dealth the Senegalese their seventh straight loss to us”, he said.
SIGNED;
Kola Daniel,
S.A Media,
Office of the Director General, NSC.
August 3, 2025.
Basketball
NBBF Elections: NSC Issues Major Policy Ruling, Halting Musa Kida’s Third-Term Bid
By Chinedum Ohanusi
The National Sports Commission (NSC) has fired a decisive and devastating salvo that has all but ended the schemings by incumbent President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Engr. Musa Ahmadu Kida for a tenure elongation, and an unprecedented 3rd term for those serving in the current board.
The directive by the NSC, as widely circulated in virtually all known media outlets in the country, firmly shut the doors, against speculations of an attempt by some members of the highly divided NBBF Board, to circumvent the letter and spirit of their own constitution, which was recently fortified, in an effort to have divergent interests and stakeholders, on one page.
In a formal letter addressed to the NBBF President, Engr. Kida, the NSC made its stance unequivocally clear, by stating that “no federation president or member of a board, can seek a third term in office”.
The same letter added that, “and for the avoidance of doubt, the next NBBF elections are locked in for January 2026—not a day later”.
With that, the Commission, which apparently acted on a similar guideline released by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has effectively closed the chapter, on any further talk of a tenure extension, or manoeuvres for an unprecedented 3rd term, for a President of the NBBF.
According to insider sources, the NSC hierarchy we understand moved quickly to silence swelling uncertainty over the federation’s electoral timetable and growing rumours that Engr. Kida who was first elected in 2017 and now in the wee weeks of his second four-year tenure, was considering stretching his stay beyond constitutional limits.
Sports Day has it on good authority that some power blocs had floated an alternative expiration date of October 2026, pointing to the August 5th inauguration by the then Sports Minister, Chief Sunday Dare, in Abuja.
But the NSC also shot that one down, by asserting that the board’s legitimacy traces back to the January 31, 2022 election in Benin City, conducted under strict FIBA supervision, and the elected officers sworn-in immediately after.
Although, Engr Kida who also assumed duties, as non-executive chairman of the NNPC Limited has not openly said he is seeking a third term in office, his body language, and unwillingness to ingite the process for the elections, which should hold in two months time.
Vice President of the NBBF, Babatunde Ogunade, who Chaired the panel that reviewed the constitution of the body, with a view to reunite the factions, has on many occasions stated that the constitution doesn’t have a place for third term and that, he was certain that Engr. Kida is not seeking an extension to his stay as the NBBF boss.
But speaking with sports journalists in Abuja, not long ago, after an event at the National Institute for Sports, the Borno-born administrator, whose popularity has fallen to an all-time low, refused to categorically deny his “inordinate ambition”, as some stakeholders have called it.
With this directive, the basketball community in Nigeria waits to see one thing—whether the NBBF will toe the constitutional line or test the resolve of the country’s highest sports authority, the NSC. Either way, the countdown to 2026 has officially begun.
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