Nigeria’s preparation for the upcoming 2023 women’s Afrobasket tournament in Kigali, capital of Rwanda has suffered fresh glitches, as two out of the twenty foreign-based players called to a camp in Abuja, are said to have quietly withdrawn.
On Monday July 17, 2023 the NBBF announced that it has invited twenty (20) D’Tigress players and five (5) officials to a camp in Abuja.
Newly appointment Head Coach, Rena Wakama is expected to head the coaching crew, which also has Samson Sofuminu, Juli Negedu and Aisha Mohammed as her assistants.
But the list released in the morning, only had five players from the local league, and thirteen (13) players based in the diaspora, led by Sarah Ogoke.
This suggested that two more foreign-based players have joined France-based Chisom Udodi in withdrawing from the team, while protesting the “unprofessionalism” by the NBBF in their planned try-outs to help raise a team for the D’Tigress Afrobasket participation in Rwanda.
Ahead of the 28th edition of the bienniel tournament, at which D’Tigress of Nigeria are the defending champions, and are primed to go for a record equalling fourth Afrobasket title in a row; the team has been dogged by paucity of funds and a mirage of other problems.
The dishammoney in the Board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) led by Engr. Musa Kida reached a boiling point; with some board members, openly throwing jibes at the leadership, for lacking openness, and its deliberate act of silencing board members, by not calling for meetings to discuss major issues.
The media was awash last two weeks of claims that the new Head Coach of the D’Tigress Ms. Wakama was an imposition by Engr. Kida, as neither the NBBF board nor its Technical Committee met to ratify her contentious appointment.
Questions were also raised about the competence of the 31-year-old Coach for such a big job. She was dubbed a Rookie Coach by the aggrieved board members; who also debunked vigorously, claims that she was a former player of the senior national team.
At the height of the verbal punches being thrown at each other, the board members in opposition were openly critical of the try-outs announced by the NBBF as the avenues for the new Head Coach to select a team for the D’Tigress title defence in Kigali, from the 29th of July to the 6th of August 2023.
Another snag in all off this, was the accusations that the NBBF president unfairly treated Coach
Otis Hughley who steered the D’Tigress to clinching the converted Afrobasket titles, in Senegal and in Cameroun; without a regular contract, and was eased off without recourse to the board, when he demanded for a regularization of his contract.
Speaking to Sportswriters in Abuja on the state of affairs with basketball in Nigeria, former Minister of Sports Development, Solomon Dalung predicted that the Nigeria senior women basketball team will struggle a lot at the 2023 FIBA Afrobasket.
Dalung while making this unsavory prediction at the Nigeria Olympians Association Summit in Abuja on Thursday, claimed that his prediction is derived from the facts and figures, available to him.
“Many top players of D’Tigress have threatened not to show up when the camp for the tournament is opened, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) had to stop the tryouts in the USA following low patronage”, the former minister added.
He said the game (basketball) was the pride of Nigeria as at 2017 and even before he left office in 2019 but due to maladministration and in-fighting by the board members, the sport has degenerated to its lowest ebb.
He also recalled with pride how in 2018, D’Tigress went to the World Cup defeated one of the powerhouses of women’s basketball in the world (Argentina) to get to the last eight, and became the first African team to play at the quarterfinal of the FIBA Women’s World Cup, in 100 years.
They also improved in their rankings from number 32nd in the world to 8th, and have been African champions for three consecutive times since 2017 to 2021; but have been poorly managed, and not well appreciated.
Nigeria are in Group D of the tournament, along with Egypt and the DR Congo.
