Phantom NBBF faction wants Dare to call federation scribe to order
Speaking on behalf of a non-existing board they called on Dare to stop the NBBF Secretary
By
Olukayode Thomas
Though it’s a new year but the tranquillity and new beginning that the new year usher to most organizations may elude the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) in 2022.
The body has been in crisis since 2013.
Just a few days into the new year, a body that called itself the NBBF Media Committee, (the NBBF presently does not have a board, so how can there be a Media Committee), in an unsigned press statement released on Sunday called on Sunday Dare, the Sports Minister, to call Afolabi-Oluwayemi Olabisi the scribe of NBBF to order and stop what they described as her unprecedented abuse of office which they claimed is damaging the federation.
They also said they are, “worried over her retrogressive actions”.
The email address used to send the press release to media houses was the same email address that was being used when Musa Kida was the President of NBBF.
Speaking on behalf of a non-existing board they called on Dare to stop the NBBF Secretary “before her damaging actions in the federation plunge the sport into political crisis and utter chaos.”
They claimed Afolabi-Oluwayemi unilaterally entered into a partnership with a private league because of the NBBF’s delayed board elections.
“For observers, the numerous actions she has taken reeks of desperation and gross abuse of office, while openly expressing support for an interested party in the forthcoming NBBF Board elections.
"The Secretary-General has continued to usurp so much of the powers of NBBF with most of them very unpopular and highly controversial"
"This is not fair to other consistent stakeholders and investors. The Honorable Minister must intervene so that she does not plunge the sport into a fresh round of crisis".
The above is self-contradictory. The body claimed Afolabi-Oluwayemi is partisan in the coming election and at the same time they accused her of usurping the power of the board. If there is no board in place then whose power is she usurping? Secondly, is the secretariat not empowered to perform the functions of the board when one is not in place?
Continued the release "Many will want to know how a private league was selected by Secretary-General amongst all the private initiatives, leagues and camps across the six geo-political zones and given preferential attention".
NBBF leadership noted that since the SG has become the only person in charge of the Secretariat, as an exclusive preserve being staff of the Ministry of Sports, she has continued to apportion so much power to herself that she virtually commits so many blunders with no repercussions!
"She has taken it upon herself to massively abuse the office of the SG by unilaterally using the letterhead of the federation to officially invite teams and even technical officials to participate in a privately organized league that will take place in Abuja, and this is unprecedented."
For keen observers, her decision reeks of double standard and clear favoritism going into the Board elections in the coming days, as directed by the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA).
Her recent actions validate saying that “absolute powers corrupt absolutely” because, without the effective necessary checks from the board, she has continued to take unilateral decisions capable of harming the sport and the federation.
The Honorable Minister they wrote will save the sports, and indeed the Federation, from irreversible damage by calling on her to put a stop to her controversial decisions, communications and do a lot of proper consultations with the leadership of the NBBF for useful decisions to be taken. Decisions that will bring sustainable growth and unity in a fragile NBBF, which she has helped create and sustain.
The phantom group, suspected to be the Kida group, will do basketball and indeed sports a lot good by coming out as genuine stakeholders with evidence of Afolabi-Oluwayemi acts of impunities instead of issuing an unsigned press release that will only escalate the crisis in basketball.
