Chairman of Nigeria Basketball Federation Caretaker Committee, Engr. Musa Kida, has commended Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, for his ‘sincere and genuine’ daily efforts seeking for the best possible way to resolve the internal feud within the basketball family, Completesports reports.

The long drawn impasse had tended to bring the ‘dunking and slamming’ game to its knees in the country.

Kida spoke at a media parley at the Park Inn by Radisson Service Apartments in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The NBBF boss was full of praises and appreciation for the honourable minister who has spared no efforts in ensuring that all warring factions in the basketball fraternity sheathed their swords with a view to reach a truce that will usher in a conducive atmosphere for an all-round sustainable growth in basketball in Nigeria.

“If there was no enabling environment, there is no way we could have performed our functions”, said Kida in a frank tone.

“There is no way we would have been able to do what we needed to do. There is no way we could have had the flexibility to do what we did in order for these results to come in the last couple of years.

“So on that note, we want to, in all sincerity, thank the Honourable minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, ‘Egba Akin’, who every day, I can tell you, looks for the best way of resolving the matter and encouraging the atmosphere to be the best it can.”

Kida added: “We all know it’s not easy, that Africans and Nigerians expect that every match we play we should win.

“Of course, it is his responsibility to ensure we win; but it is also his responsibility to make sure that he allows us as administrators, and create an enabling environment for us to do our jobs.

“So, on that note, I want to sincerely thank him for his understanding and also for his encouragement, and his own ministry which we have had expert opinions coming from themselves, very tested people in the ministry.

“Like I said before, we had always looked at the coin may be from different sides, but we have brought that discussions to the table in order for us to all collectively be able to move forward.

“Just like others, I will say that I am most grateful for your support, and we are still begging for your continued support in a way that will allow us to progress and develop the game of basketball in the country,” Kida pleaded.

Recently, the minister convened an Extra Ordinary Congress of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, in an effort to settle all the differences that existed amongst both divides.