In a bid to strengthen Nigeria’s basketball from the grassroots to the national level, the Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to revitalizing the domestic league while ensuring that the senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, is fully supported ahead of the 2025 FIBA Afrobasket Tournament in Angola.

Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Malam Shehu Dikko, emphasized this while congratulating the team on their impressive qualification campaign in Tripoli, Libya, where they triumphed over Libya, Uganda, and Cape Verde.

Dikko highlighted the importance of a strong domestic league in shaping a formidable national team, stressing that efforts would be intensified to provide homegrown talents with opportunities to shine on the international stage.

“I looked at the final rooster of 12 players and there were just two home-based players. We are planning to get to that territory where more players from the domestic league will be involved. Experts always say that a country’s national team is as good as its league. This postulation is applicable to all team sports,  basketball inclusive and indeed other sports.” he stated.

To achieve this, Dikko assured that the NSC, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, would work closely with the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) to strengthen the domestic league and resolve any internal disputes affecting the sport’s growth.

He also pledged that all necessary logistics and player welfare issues would be addressed to ensure D’Tigers can focus on winning the Afrobasket trophy, a feat they last achieved in 2015.

“We will work in conjunction with the NBBF to settle any and all mitigating issues. Everyone needs to be on the same page so that we can pull in the same direction”, Dikko concluded.