As Nigeria’s female basketball national team, D’Tigress, head out for this year’s continental championship in Cote d’Ivoire, an outspoken former player, Theresa Azibaye Mac-Dangosu has alleged that the lasses suffered a lot during their preparation.
Sports247 reports that the former player of Lagos-based Nigerian basketball clubs, First Bank and Customs, as well as East African powerhouse, Kenya Ports Authority, blamed administratitive issues for the inability of D’Tigress to get proper attention.
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She reckoned further that Nigeria’s chances of clinching a fifth straight title at this year’s Women’s African Basketball Championship (AfroBasket 2025), which starts this Friday in Abidjan, have been diminished by ‘unresolved internal issues.’
Dangosu, who now runs a fashion business and provides social media content, lamented, “It’s really sad that every time there’s a competition, the girls have to suffer because of whatever internal issues that cannot be resolved by the people in position of authority.
“That shows incompetence of leaders and lack of seriousness by those who are meant to take care of people who are putting in so much. It tells a lot about leadership in Nigeria.”
Mac-Dangosu, though, admitted that administrative lapses are not limited to basketball alone, as she pointed at similar setbacks that occur in other parts of Nigeria’s sports sector.
She expatiated, “It’s not just in basketball. It’s something that happens in every sector. It’s not that I want to be unreasonable or forceful, but money is being spent on irrelevant things, while people who need attention and finances don’t get to enjoy it.
“I think it is sad that this is 2025, and we are still at this level, where a team wants to travel out, and they are saying there’s no money.”
She concluded by citing the recent case of Favour Ofili, who dumped Nigeria for Turkey due to administrative lapses that made her miss two editions of the Olympic Games, and Dangosu warned that basketball could suffer a similar fate.
“For one reason or the other, we keep on having administrative issues. It’s not just basketball … it’s happening even in athletics.
“Look at the case of the athlete who has left Nigeria and is going to represent a different country. All these things are issues that I don’t think we should still be struggling with,” Dangosu reasoned.
