Following a successful hosting of the third FIBA window of the African qualifiers at the Indoor Sports Hall, National Stadium Lagos, President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Engr Musa Kida has called on those in charge of the facility to imbibe a good maintenance culture.
The NBBF in conjunction with some corporate bodies renovated the Indoor Sports Hall which had been in a terrible state over the years. The floor, toilets, locker rooms, lighting wore a new look during the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers Group B games held in Lagos.
Kida said”The Indoor Sports Hall is not an NBBF property. It was a hard decision to renovate using what we got from our sponsors to have the facilities ready to accommodate this window.
“One of the tenets of my board is that we have or create a sustainable programme in terms of leagues, infrastructure etc. This is why we decided to put in place what we have now and it can stand the test of time. We do hope it will be maintained for the next 3 or 4 years.”
Nigeria is known to have a poor maintenance culture most notably the National Stadiums in Abuja and Lagos.
“I want to appeal to the good conscience of the people in charge of the hall to keep the facility in good shape who knows we might have to come back in the next 2 years for an international tournament,” said Kida
The Rivers State Basketball Association chairman also outlined plans for the women’s national team, D’Tigress ahead of this year’s World Cup in Spain.
“All our programmes are geared towards mobilization for a camp in Atlanta in the next two weeks and it’s going to be continuous in terms of camps and friendlies. We intend going to play in Turkey, Spain before the World Cup itself. All the players have been identified right now and we have 28-29 players to be invited to camp.”
