NBBF: Sam Ahmedu Clarifies Why Nigeria Pays N.4m Daily Into Private Account For National Team Training

  NBBF: Sam Ahmedu Clarifies Why Nigeria Pays N.4m Daily Into Private Account For National Team Training By Omolagba Oluwayemi BSN Sports can reveal that Nigeria Federal Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development pays the sum of Four hundred thousand (N400,000) only each time Nigeria national basketball team trains on the basketball court at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. In separate interviews with Basketball stakeholders, those who spoke with BSN Sports raised eyebrow and described the act as fraudulent. The stakeholders who pleaded anonymity were furious that Four hundred thousand naira is paid into Alpha Sports account (a company co-owned by the NBBF President, Musa Kida) and not into the Federation's account. He stated that the act is tantamount to against conflict of interest which is against the civil service rule. "How can Nigeria be paying four hundred thousand naira (N400,000) each time D'Tigers and D'Tigress train on the National Stadium, Lagos. A property owned by the country." One of the stakeholders told BSN Sports. "As if that's not enough, the money is paid into Alpha Sports' account, a company co-owned by the NBBF President, Musa Kida." This act is fraudulent and against the civil service rule and must not be allowed to continue in a country like Nigeria." Reacting to the allegation, the president of FIBA Africa Zone 3 and NBBF Board member, Col. Sam Ahmedu (rtd), confirmed and justified the payment, saying that there are no good basketball courts for Nigerian American and European based players to train on. He added that Alpha Sports as a business entity spent money on the renovation of the court and rent it out to whoever needs it. "Our players are US based - NBA players, some are in Europe, they are high quality players and no indoor hall in Nigeria has a suitable floor for them to play on. Abuja floor is synthetic and you cannot play a grade A game there. "Teslim (Balogun Stadium court) is not good and not up to standard and in a day training at Teslim, we did use close to N80,000 fuel. So, that's the only hall available where we don't pay but buying diesel for the generator. And now the floor where the national team trains is privately owned, it is not the floor of the ministry of youths and sports, so, if the owner of the floor says my floor is for rent, and you remember when we played those World Cup qualifying games in 2018, the federation had to lease the floor, so, it is not the federation's property. "And since the owner of the floor requested for N400,000 for its use, we have to pay because when our foreign players come to Nigeria, there are many adminstrative things to be put in place, so the board had no choice." "If we (Nigeria and NBBF) are to secure our own floor for the future, we will need nothing less than N50m. So, what the board is doing is to make everything right by paying for the floor for training. "It is up to you to blame the board for leasing floor to play which is helping our performances and to even win competition." Sam Ahmedu who played a concludedmajor role in the emergence of Musa Kida as NBBF President, concluded. Investigation revealed that Nigeria has been paying for the rent since 2018. According to Legal dictionary, conflict of interest is described as a situation in which a person has a duty to more than one person or organization, but cannot do justice to the actual or potentially adverse interests of both parties. "Like other types of illegal or unethical activities, conflict of interest activities carry the risk of consequences. Federal and state laws have been set up to criminalize conflicts of interest in the public sector, and in certain circumstances, conflict of interest can result in prosecution." The online dictionary added.