t was reported that the Nigeria’s under-16 boys national basketball team have been given a sum of 1000 naira each for their recent exploits in the African qualifiers.
Nigeria enjoyed a good qualifying run with both the boys and girls national teams advancing to the FIBA Africa under-16 Championships set to tip off in Tunisia next month.
The Baby D’Tigers secured a comfortable 67-38 victory against Ivory Coast in their first game of the FIBA Africa Zone 3 qualifiers to still qualify despite losing the second game to Ghana 47-45.
As a token of appreciation for the exploits of the boys in the FIBA Africa Zone 3 qualifiers, the Nigeria Basketball Federation has reportedly given each player in the under-16 team a sum of 1000 Naira each.
Nigerian journalist Kenny Bamidele revealed exclusively via a series of tweets on his Twitter handle @BigKensyn that each player was paid a thousand Naira while some got 5000 Naira for returning to their base.
According to Kenny, “The players from Lagos who had been screened and chosen were all transported by NBBF. They took public transportation from Lagos to Abuja and then all the way from Abuja to Accra to continue their camp.
They departed Abuja in the early morning of day one for Accra, arriving in Ghana at night on day two. They travelled by road.”
The report has circulated the internet for the past few hours and has generated reactions and outrage from concerned Nigerians about the paltry nature of the sum.
The NBBF are yet to publicly deny or confirm the authenticity of this information despite Pulse Sports’ efforts but more updates will follow as they become available.
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