By George Aluo
World basketball governing body, FIBA appears set to dismiss a plea by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) for her to visit the country before elections are conducted by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).
The Nigerian Olympic body had in a November 11 letter signed by her scribe Banji Oladapo pleaded with FIBA to send a delegation to Nigeria before the NBBF election. The NOC based her recommendation on the crisis rocking NBBF.
But a competent FIBA source told Newstap.com.ng that the world basketball governing body may not concede grounds given the fact that they are tired of the problems coming out the country’s basketball which dates back to when Solomon Dalung was in charge as sports minister.
According to our source, FIBA is basing her position on the fact that such previous visits did not yield any fruitful results as the stakeholders keep fighting each other.
“One thing is clear, it is either we do the needful or get hammered by FIBA. In the first place, FIBA themselves have since discovered that the NOC under Gumel is not a serious body. They won’t listen to NOC…go and mark my words,” our source said.
It would be noted that
FIBA in a letter to NBBF warned that Nigeria would be hammered if it fails to conduct election by November 30.
FIBA also frowned at the interference of the sports ministry. The ministry has since taken over the running of the basketball federation.
