The leadership of Nigeria Basketball Federation has described as mischievous a recent media report about the GoFundMe initiative by the senior men basketball team.
The federation declared that the initiative to create awareness and raise more funds for the team, enjoys its buy-in, as an efficient and transparent way for Nigerians in diaspora who crave to identify with Nigerian Basketball.
NBBF President, Engr Musa Kida described it as “Legitimate idea that has our backing. GoFundMe is a platform that is used by the biggest stars and superstars within and outside the basketball circle in the USA and other developed countries to rally and talk to their base and get buy-in and ownership of their programs.”
“The Olympics is the biggest multi-sport event in the world and we need all hands on deck to successfully prosecute the Olympics with our eyes on a podium finish.”
Kida dismissed the insinuation that the team is in distress and cash-strapped, hence their decision to go public sourcing for funds.
He described it as an irresponsible report which serves no positive purpose but a cheap attempt to distract the team and paint the federation in a bad light.
“I wonder where the journalist got his information that the team is financially distressed from. As Nigerians, we should research and be at par with global trends rather than stay in the dark ignorantly.
“We enjoy the full financial support of the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports who are making all possible efforts to adequately take care of NBBF’s past spends and the Olympics preparations of our teams. We know that sports needs are insatiable and we all need more funds to meet those immediate needs”, Kida stated.
“For the federation, the national teams belong to all Nigerians home and abroad who are ready to associate with what the NBBF is doing. This is also the reason why we cannot be dependent on the Government 100% to prepare the national teams to do well at the Olympics. We will always appreciate help from credible sources, both corporate and individual, to drive our national teams to success in all our activities.”
“We remain grateful to the Federal Ministry of Youth And Sports, the Minister of Sports, corporate bodies and indeed all the individuals that have contributed one way or the other towards the very huge successes we have been recording.”
He concluded that with the huge financial burden on the ministry for previous international engagements by the D’Tigers and D’Tigress as well as sourcing for funds for the Olympics in Tokyo, the federation just had to think outside the box.
