A group of Nigerian Basketball Stakeholders known as Basketball With Integrity has petitioned the sport’s world governing body, FIBA on the lingering leadership dispute of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF.
In a petition signed by the group’s spokesman, Edward Morris, members called on FIBA to ensure that a fresh election of the NBBF Board is held before “the start of preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics,”
They also demanded that the draft Constitution of the NBBF which the world body supervised with its inputs be ratified without delay.
The petition. which was also sent to the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC and top shots of both factions of the NBBF, said their members are worried because “our basketball is currently suffering from the inability to resolve the 2017 election issues, as we currently have three lawsuits that have been filed and they are affecting our league”.
Stressing that the country’s world ranking “does not portray the real state of our basketball”, the group asked FIBA to “apply the same sense of urgency that was accorded other member nations such as Russia and Philippines which had experienced similar controversies”.
The group also alleged that there was a deliberate effort by the African governing body to “sit back and watch the administration of Nigeria basketball continue to disintegrate because a well-functioning administration would be a threat to the leadership dominion of the current leadership under Alphonse Bile”.
It was equally alleged that the body language of the world body which initiated the crisis resolution, but stopped half way “showed that no new election would be held before 2021 contrary to its earlier position on the issue”.
