The President of Nigeria Basketball Federation, (NBBF), Tijjani Umar, spoke to Slam and Dunk on the federation's readiness to take the game to the next level. The former Bauchi Nets Basketball Club, Kaduna Superstars Basketball Club and Kwara Falcons Basketball Club forward also took time to assess other issues relating to the growth of the game in the country. Excerpts;
What does the future hold for the game in the country?
We are going to lay out a blueprint tor the development of the game. We have some local players in the country. I believe we have a programme that would be suitable for the local players and this would be sustainable.
There is no way we can have more than 12 players in the national team, DTigress, at a time. We have a technical crew that we believe in. Before we went to Libya, the coaches sat down to make the final selection and they all agreed on the players that made the team to Libya. Even the coach who conducted the Kaduna camp is a member of the technical crew, he also agreed that was the best for now. All the same, they are all Nigerians who came to represent then: country, I don't want to categorise one as foreign or local based, I always distance myself from sentiments.
Sir, do you believe this team can be relied on?
Absolutely, I think they can be relied on. But we need to prepare them and also motivate them to do well in championships. We need good preparations and planning which have been lacking for a long time and that was because there were no clear cut programmes. We saw the Ivorians and everybody was talking about their team work, but we failed to realise that these Ivorians have been together for about three months, in fact, they have been building this team for all most six years now.
Can you recap how the D'Tigers lost the wild card for the FIBA World Championship in Turkey?
Well, we made efforts to see if we can be considered for the wild card, and don't forget that we are not the only country looking for the wild card. We are ranked higher than Cameroon who defeated us in the quarter-finals, in fact, we are number two in Africa after Angola. But the most important thing for us as a nation is to sit down and organise our programmes so that we won't need to be banking on wild cards to make world championships. We have a lot of potentials in this country, but poor administration and funding has always been the bane of sports. How can one comprehend a situation where you get less than N20 million from the sports governing body in the country which is not even enough to buy tickets to the United States for the national team full camping. It been very challenging, so to be honest with you, I Think wild card is not something we should be contemplating for now.
What other plans do you have for basketball in the country?
I don't my things on sentiments. I warn to leave the administration of basketball in this country on a good note. So, by the time I leave the office, I will be happy that I laid a solid foundation which someone else would build on.
Can you let us know the efforts that has been put in place for the Women's national team the D'Tigresses just like their male counterparts?
For me, adequate preparations is key to success. In thelast few months that I have led this federation, I have done everything within my power to attract the private sector and interested individuals to assist us. When we came back from Libya, it was so frustrating and I asked if we really want to do other sports apart from football for obvious reasons. If we do, then, we have to give this other sports some attention. We also need National Sports Commission to release our budget in good time for us to perform and they should not hesitate to hold us responsible if we fail.
For instance, they wanted to know why we fail to qualify for the World Championship when we came back from Libya and I said they have no right to ask me because we were not funded to go to Libya.
Respectively, I told them politely that they should forget about wanting to reap where they did not sow.
I'm sure you are aware of how some individuals supported the team in their own little way. We used the small resources to hold a two-week camping in the United States and the other camps here in Nigeria before the final selection of players that represented us in Libya was made. We won seven out of the nine games played in Libya which was exceptionally good. Unfortunately, we lost to Cameroon in the quarter-finals and don't forget that Cameroun have been out throughout the summer holding camps, playing friendly matches and different tournaments unlike Nigeria that went for just two weeks camping in the United States.