September, 21 2021.
Yesterday the Minister of Youth and Sports convened an emergency meeting with the leadership of the two factions in the NBBF to help settle a 4-year old fued that has tugged at the heart of the unity of the game. The emergency meeting which held on Monday evening virtually had the top guns in the Ministry in attendance.
The permanent secretary Nebolisa Anako, the Director of Federations, Simon Ebojaiye, Dr. Nelson, Maria Whopil and Olumide Bamidele and the Director of Legal were in attendance from the Ministry. The NOC President, Engineer Gumel was present with his Secretary General Mr. Banji. Ahmed Kidda and Tijani Umar were both present also.
The meeting which lasted about two hours was focused and dealt with the key areas of disagreement. It was decided that a stakeholders meeting be convened immediately before the end of the month with both sides coming with 10 people. The Ministry and NOC will mediate at the Meeting.
The meeting also directed the NOC to follow up with FIBBA over the petition it received concerning the approved constitution and way forward. A plea went out for all sides to work for a resolution in order to avoid a leadership crisis that could limit the development of basketball.
The Minister was said to have been very pointed in his remarks cautioning that anyone planning to plunge basket ball into crisis will not be tolerated.