Sports Minister Solomon Dalung ascribed the recent cup winning feat of Nigeria’s female basketball team to the reforms he introduced into the sporting federations. I thought it was an early celebration, considering the fact that the team was once the continent’s queens in the dunking game and could reinvent itself with proper management of the key details of cup winning teams. I thought it was a needless attempt to mock the other faction. Dalung, as minister, should be neutral in such matters. He should look at the bigger picture in all his decisions, which is Nigeria.
The promptness with which Dalung ushered the triumphant girls to President Muhammadu Buhari for the reception attracted complaints from the wrestlers, especially Adekouroye who won a silver medal for the country at a World championship, the first ever by a black woman. She felt slighted by the minister, considering the fact that her feat was at a world championship whereas the girls are collective African queens.
Has the minister taken Adekuoroye to President Buhari? I don’t think so. Don’t ask me for the reason if he couldn’t tell us that his reforms also gave Adekuoroye the silver medal. Have the Paralympians been received by the President? I don’t think so. These were world beaters at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Tokyo 2020 Paralympics is three years away? What shall we tell the Paralympians now – that we have used and dumped them? This Animal Farm reward system is responsible for the exodus of our star athletes to other countries. I digress.
As the minister was celebrating the girls, it struck me that the male team would soon defend its title. I wondered what the minister would tell the President if they failed to defend the trophy weeks later as we have seen. I’m not a prophet of doom. I reckoned that the Tunisians will do everything humanly possible to avert another defeat by the Nigerian side in front of their nationals. Nigeria beat Tunisia to win the trophy which they predictably lost 65-77 to the Tunisians in another final fixture. It has come to pass. Dalung, how far?
Aside, only one member of the last golden team reported to camp. They wanted the coach who led them to victory to defend the trophy. It made plenty of sense. But with an acrimonious change of guards at the helm of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), the changes and the team’s consequent results shouldn’t surprise us. Those who followed every game of the Afrobasket tournament in Tunis until the finals this year will agree that they were nerve-wrenching matches, underlining the fact that the squad had defects. In fact, the team lost all its games in the third quarter, apparently it lacked stamina, a major coaching flaw, if you ask any avid basketball follower.
This article isn’t one to mock the minister. It is rather, an appeal to him to seek audience with chieftains of FIBA to amicably resolve the impasse at the NBBF for the good of the game here. FIBA chiefs have an idea of what they want to do if we fail to reach an amicable resolution. It will be sad if FIBA appoints outsiders to run the game for us as its rules state. The November 30 deadline is enough time for the minister to decide using the acceptable parameters for conducting elections. One fact is clear. If Nigeria did the right thing at the last elections, FIBA would have recognised the new body without setting the November 30
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deadline.
Indeed, the feedbacks from the two factions suggest that there cannot be any truce. If so, will the minister have the courage to wield the stick on both factions and get new people to run the federation without rancour? The minister can appoint a five-man interim body to run the federation with a time frame and mandate to conduct elections ruling out all the combatants in the factions.
With our women being the best in Africa and the men in the second best in the continent, it is clear that the home of the dunking game is here, despite the in-fighting in the NBBF and our derelict facilities. No surprises at our present rankings in Africa, if we remember that Nigeria produced one of the greatest male basketballers in the world, Hakeem ‘the dream’ Olajuwon, although he was nurtured to greatness by the Americans, to whom the dunking game is a religion.
Dalung sir, it is instructive to remind you that 80 per cent of the players who won these laurels for us ply their trade in the United States (US). They should be the nexus of a new beginning in the dunking game, only if you play the role of an umpire. They have distinguished themselves based on the training they received outside. This foreign platform has given them the impetus to compete with the best in the world, an edge we have used to conquer Africa. We need to ask the foreign legion what operates where they are based.
Our boys and girls are schooling and playing the game. Their exploits haven’t gone unnoticed by the Americans. What they want from our system to contribute to our basketball chain for producing talents is a template recognised by the government for them to do sports business.
Every facet of the game is business – from the billboards inside the halls, the equipment, floors of the courts, scoreboard, changing plates, television rights and the coverage of the matches e.t.c. They will generate revenue to improve the game.
The Americans have built their basketball around the schools. It is at the nursery level that the basics can be taught. We need to take sports to kids. This can only happen if we have schools that produce games masters and mistresses who know the fundamentals of games.
Can Nigeria win a medal at the Olympics in basketball? Why not? Who would have thought that Nigeria could clinch the gold medal of the football event in Atlanta, considering the stature of the countries which participated in the games? Nigerians are known to give their best when underrated. We won the football gold medal because our players were doing well in the European leagues where the big boys played. It is the same setting now in basketball. Our boys and girls play in the US. The advantage is that they know those who are in their league. The fear factor for such bigger basketball countries is thrown into the lagoon. Interestingly, these big players know that we can compete with them. It is for this reason that Dalung must rescue this potential medal winning game from the brink.
I’m excited about the prospect of having the Americans to introduce youth academies here where our kids can combine sports with academics, which is the asset every American carries with him/her at retirement.
