Engr Musa Kida led-faction of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) organised a stakeholders meeting for the Atlantic Conference on Wednesday at the Indoor Sports Hall, National Stadium Lagos.
The Stakeholders meeting which is usually put together to herald the new season, tackled lots of issues around Nigeria Basketball. Issues involving welfare, technicalities, the men and women’s league, national teams and the ongoing crisis rocking the NBBF.
In one of his remarks, Kida disclosed that a drafting committee has already been set up to draft a Constitution for its upcoming election ordered by the world basketball governing body, FIBA.
“FIBA has said election would be held and we will do that when we are ready. Though they did not tell us when it will take place. There is no Constitution and we need to develop one. Already, there is a drafting team in place to draft a Constitution which would definitely take time. It’s also one of the requests by the ministry for us to draft a Constitution three months after the inauguration.”
FIBA in their last letter in March, ruled out both elections done on June 12 which produced Tijani Umar and the election on June 13 which brought in Musa Kida in Abuja. FIBA stated that the Kano election did not comply with the article 9.3 of the FIBA statutes. While the election in Abuja that saw Kida take over the reins failed to adhere to article 9.7 of the FIBA statutes.
“The statutes and regulation of national members must comply with the General statutes and Internal Regulations of FIBA. The General Statutes and internal Regulations of FIBA shall form part of the national member federations’ statutes and regulations. In the event of doubt or conflict, the General Statutes and Internal Regulation of FIBA will prevail.” Article 9.3 of the FIBA statutes states
While Article 9.7 of the FIBA statutes states that: “National members of the federation shall manage their affairs independently and with no influence from third parties. In particular they must ensure that their officials are either elected or appointed under a democratic process for a term of office for four (4) years. Their statutes must provide a transparent procedure that guarantees the complete independence of election or appointment.”
With the two elections failing to meet FIBA standard, Kida said there will be no rush in drafting a Constitution and the right thing will be done to avoid errors.
“We will do it as at when due after learning lessons from last year June 12 election in Kano we were told there was a Constitution and there was none. We need to be careful with the process and we will go far and wide in terms of consultation to have a Constitution that would stand the test of time. We do agree it should start in earnest and we are putting up a committee to take care of that and after that is done we should be able to inform FIBA what our next action to take which will definitely lead to the elections.”
The Rivers State Basketball Chairman called on stakeholders to join hands to help the NBBF attain its required heights, while also reiterating his mandate backed by the NOC and the Federal Government.
“I have a mandate stamped and accepted by the NOC and Federal Government which translated into the President receiving us, myself, my board and my players on a very personal basis. I have a mandate and it is still valid. My plea to you all is to work with me until we have the election. We will hold elections in the next three years whether we like it or not. But that doesn’t mean everything should be on standby.”
Meanwhile, a minute silence was observed for a young player, Waheed Jimoh who slumped while playing at the National Institute for Sports (NIS) basketball court during the Stakeholders meeting.
The Kida board also used the meeting to unveil a new website for the federation, basketballnigeria.com and scheduled the month of June for refresher courses and training for statisticians, referees and coaches.
The Stakeholders meeting for the Savannah Conference will take place on Friday May 18 at the NIS Hostel, Package B of the National Stadium Abuja.
