Lagos, Oct. 19, 2025 – Some homebased Nigerian professional basketball players have cried out against the decaying administration of the game in the country which has almost rendered the local league comatose.
They expressed their views in a statement made available to our correspondent in Lagos on Sunday.
They claimed that the incumbent leadership of the Nigerian Basketball Board Federation has spent seven years with a non-progressive local league.
“Since these people came, we’ve not even had a quarter of what we used to have.
“One fact, which is a major one is a functional league that runs from March to end of the year normally that has been taken away in the last seven years.
“Cheap and all manner of excuses is what we often hear,” Joseph Alhassan, the Civil Defence Basketball Coach, said.
“This decline started seven years ago. And at that time, we were still struggling with one or two sponsorships and issues in courts, factions, and all that.
“But it’s just a sad reality where we have found ourselves after seven years.
“This is 2025. And categorically, we play abridged leagues, which is just like come together, play for like three, four, five days, play like 20% of the volume of games you are supposed to play, just to pick a winner.
“That has been it in recent times. At least in like five successions now, you already know who the federation is on the side, you already know the team they are going to push, you already know the team that is going to win.” Alhassan said further.
The players also asserted that the board has totally abandoned the local basketball players for the foreign based players who have excelled in the game through individual efforts.
“You will see that these are professionals that have been able to personally push their own careers outside the country. They are the ones that our leaders, will go and hire to come and give them a good face.
“We play just 20% growing and managing the game in the country. We have a situation where coaches have come from abroad and said that there’s no basketball players that Nigeria has presented that is up to standard except those that have gone abroad to train themselves,” Ifeolu Adewumi, a player in Hot Coal Basketball team, said.
“We play just 20% of our league schedule. The major function of the NBBF is growing and managing the game in the country.
“We have a situation where coaches have come from abroad and said that there’s no basketball players that Nigeria has presented that is up to standard except those that have gone abroad to train themselves. Meanwhile, the game is dead at home,” he stressed further.
They expressed fears of continuity of the current board whose tenure is about to expire.
“We need a new leadership because there is already a rumour that the current Exco is planning a to amend the constitution to elongate their tenure,” he said.
The players also claimed that the board had equally failed to take advantage of the huge financial benefits available to basketball both in Nigeria and abroad thereby neglecting commercial side of game.
“I would like to make this statement of fact for the economic part of the game now. Right now, NBA Business has come to Africa five years ago. NBA’s business in Africa was over a billion dollars four years ago. What is NBA? NBA is the National Basketball League that is in America.
“That is the biggest economy of basketball in the world. Now they have seen value in Africa. They have come to Africa.
“It’s been five years. They have an office in Nigeria. I am putting it to this administration, what have they been able to achieve for the nation with this opportunity? Apart from NBA programmes, what have they been able to do?, Adewumi Ifeoluwa, a member of Hot Coal Basketball Team, queried.
“You have not been able to get sponsorship for the teams. You say it’s not your responsibility, but we know, we understand that. But your job is to make, to arrange this game, administer this game and grow it in the country, not go and bring outsiders to just look good, play tournaments, win. We come to the Glass House and we celebrate and make noise. Meanwhile, the country itself cannot produce the standard that the world is generating right now.
“We don’t have sponsors. We don’t have a league running.
“It’s been seven years and it looks like there is something covering the whole world. Everybody is just covered in one gloom. You don’t even understand. Can’t they see that we are not playing back from the days of Sprite and 7up to DST leagues? Oseni, Team Manager, Defenders Basketball team, queried.
” As I speak right now, even the Zenith League. After a little noise up and down, the female league, have they been able to sustain it?
“But I think we just have a set of people, a set of leaders that they are not even seeing the opportunities around. Even opportunities that money will not buy. That will only take a genuine effort of good leadership.” Oseni said further.
One of the players advised that going forward what is needed is a whole restructuring of the system. Something that can work.
Basketball can finance itself and even generate money for government and for its players if things are properly done.
“It’s enough. We just need leaders that understand administration. It’s not enough to say I know basketball.
“Do you know sports is business? I play basketball, but I do sports marketing. I’ve been able to make money for football teams way back as far back as 2018.
“But what have I been able to do in my own area of passion? The environment is not there. We need a structure that works.
“We need leadership that can come out and say this is the constitution governing basketball. Up till now they are hiding the constitution. We need to strive and beg people and actually find a way to see the constitution and actually know what governs what we do.” another player said.
The players also agreed that there’s an urgent need to look into the area of welfare of basketballers.
“Talking about the restructuring, I think the area of welfare comes into it because it’s a whole package we need to restructure. We are the vibe factor, the boys that bounce the ball, the girls that bounce the ball, they are the core factor. The whole event around it evolves around the game being played.
“Those players should get the same relevance when it comes to remuneration. They are the ones that bear the injuries. They are the ones that treat the injuries.
“We don’t have health insurance. Teams don’t even talk about health insurance in Nigeria. In this age and time, there is no way you are going to sign any contract in the world that is a sporting contract where the clause of your health insurance is not there.
“Because it’s sports. It’s a risk. Every minute on the field, every minute playing the game is a risk.
“In this age and time, even Nigerian players don’t know what health insurance is. That is to tell you how backward we are,” Oseni said.
On the reason why the game is on the decline? Oseni said: “I would just blame it on the management of the basketball federation,
“The NBBF, because in a situation where there is no structure in what you are doing. For instance, in basketball, there has not been any proper league since the last seven years.
“Yes, professionally it has been a serious shamble. To even talk of how players are being ill-treated in such a way that all the players that are playing in this country, none can say they have insurance, none can say they have a specific amount of salary that they have. None of them can say this is my sign-up fee.
“None of us can actually say this is my manager. So, everybody is just playing based on verbal invitation to a team. Because we have to play basketball either way.
“We have all gotten used to the game. This is what we know how to do best. But it is so unfortunate that we have a poor management that does not allow us to feel the impact of the efforts that are giving into the game in Nigeria.
“The fact is that there is no structure, there is no insurance, there is no particular amount of payment, any team can just call you and say I will give you 20,000 Naira, come and play for me. If you go there and you break your leg or you twist your ankle, whatever happens to you happens is on you.
“You are on your own as a player. None of the players in this country, none of the players in this country can tell you that you have a structure. Payment, design,in whatever team that he is playing for.
“So, they take us as jokes. The players are just being taken as jokes. Let me just put it that way because there is no way you will be in charge of something and the system is not working. And you are okay with it.
“Every football player in Nigeria has a particular amount of minimum wage that they earn. You know, we don’t, basketball has none. None”.
The players agreed that the president could not come to fix basketball, but had appointed someone to be in charge of that. And I’m sure before you appoint someone to be in charge of something in your country, you expect results in that particular platform.
“I feel most of the promises this current management of basketball as the NBBF, most of their promises never came to pass. They made a lot of promises while they were taking power and all that.
“Oh yeah, players’ welfare, how they’re going to make everything better than the previous administration, how they’re going to take care of players in terms of, how do I put it again, I already mentioned welfare, then in terms of injury, taking care of any injured player, making players grow so that they can be able to get to the next level, then knowing fully well that some of these players, they have families that depend on whatever earnings they get.
“But like I said, so many of these were just like a facade. It never came to fruition. We never saw something like that.
“For the new administration, I really wish if they could look into the players’ welfare, you know, very importantly. You check, you try to compare sports in Nigeria to other countries that are looking up to us.
“Like me, I’ve been to Cameroon. I’ve been to a few countries and I see what they do there. Yes, Nigeria is a big country.
“To be honest, like I said, let me use Cameroon at first. Nigeria is still way more advanced and better than Cameroon in terms of other things, not sports. Or let me use basketball first.
“When I went to Cameroon, I noticed they are under 12 for still functioning, under 16, under 18, and even their national team. There were a lot of games and players were getting paid directly. There was not much complaint,” Francis Ajunufo, a player with Mark Mentors Basketball Team, said.
“But you know, for the past how many years now, we’ve been playing league, basketball league in Nigeria. Instead of four or five months like we used to have, it’s not even up to three weeks.
“At times, at most you get maybe two months and it’s not concurrently. There’s always a huge time in between this league process, league periods rather.
“You have first phase that will just last probably a week, then you wait till maybe for like almost a month, you play a second phase, then like that. So, if you join everything together, it’s not even up to two months a year.
“In a year. So how much do you expect these players, how much money do you expect these players to be able to gather? And if you are looking for, you know, players need a lot of games to expose them.
How much games have they played or would they have played for them to be able to compete with other, their competitors in other countries? Yes, talking about international, when there’s an international championship, you know. So they should please try as much as they can, as the new people come in, because obviously this one, the deed has already been done.
“The ones coming in should work on players’ welfare, then in terms of players that maybe get injured once in a while, I mean at some point in their career, they shouldn’t just be left alone, you know, they should look for a way to make them understand that, OK, injury is part of sports, and not see themselves as a discarded commodity, you know, because of injury. Always make sure you draw people like that close.
“Then for the coaches too, we understand that, yeah, there are too many old coaches and young players are, it’s just now that you notice young players going into coaching, or young people rather, going into coaching,”Ajunifo said.
Joseph gave a panacea for getting good results from basketball which is getting in fresh blood.
He said: “Some of these people have been there for years. If you keep staying or handling or acquiring a particular sport for years, there won’t be time for the younger ones to come, no shoe to fill. So, there’s a need to change the old hands.
“Yes, so, find a way to either step up or vacate the seat for the younger players with better ideas, or at least those ones should be able to show what they have. We’ve tried the old hands for years and there’s no more difference.
“Just like I said, I’ve travelled to quite a number of countries and I’ve seen a lot of stuff. We need to understand that sports in itself is serious business.
“Aside, the business part of sports, sports help to curb insecurities and all the youthful exuberance and the vices constituted by the youth.
“When you engage young folks, they don’t have that time to start thinking of, you know, hurting people and engaging in crimes.”
