Former President, Nigerian Basketball Federation, Musa Ahmadu-Kida, has made a passionate plea to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, over the release of the ‘adopt-an-athlete’ funds meant for the preparation of D’Tigers and D’Tigress teams prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, VAM gathers report
Last year, Dare launched the ‘adopt-an-athlete’ initiative to increase funding in the build-up to the Tokyo Games
According to report, the NBBF demanded the sum of $230,000 raised through the programme for the men and women’s national teams.
The letter, signed by Ahmadu-Kida and the Secretary General of the NBBF, Olabisi Afolabi, titled ‘Re: Donations To The NBBF Under the Honourable Minister’s Adopt An Athlete Programme For Olympic Basketball Teams, read, “We would like to commend the Honourable Minister for his creative initiative and state that this is real and concrete evidence of the Honorable Minister’s sincere commitment towards the growth and development of basketball in the country, which has continued to encourage NBBF to strive to represent the country no matter the challenges it faces.
“The Honourable Minister is also very aware that the NBBF has not received any fund from the ministry’s execution of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics preparation and camping for the national men’s and women’s team.
“These principally held in the USA with friendlies in the USA and Europe.
“I will recall to the Honourable Minister that the men’s team made history by beating the USA and Argentina, the first and fourth-ranked basketball countries in the world.
“The NBBF has had to further draw on its liabilities to fund these programmes. As such, the NBBF would for the most part want to limit its exposure using the coveted $230,000 to start paying back the debts incurred.
“The NBBF will however directly remit 20 per cent of this sum directly to the Olympic athletes, who fully understand the ministry is still working about securing and allocating the necessary fund to offset these debts by the NBBF and the fact that the federation did not enjoy direct funding for the Olympics.”
Efforts to reach the minister’s media aide John Joshua-Akanji on the issue proved abortive as he did not respond to his calls as at the time of filing this report.
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