A chain of malfunctioning facilities and equipment that marred the early minutes of action in the Enugu zone of this year’s Nigerian Basketball Premier League has been blamed on ‘a little hitch manufacturers got at the Lagos airport.’
Sports247 reports that this explanation was offered by the south-east representative of Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF), Ugo Udezue, who also blamed ‘normal setbacks in Nigeria’ as part of the issues that caused uneasy moments at the venue in Enugu.
Observers and stakeholders complained about facility deficiencies at the basketball men’s premier league’s Coal City centre, thereby raising concerns about the competition’s smooth organisation, amidst power outages and equipment failures.
The NBBF had to rush in a new basket mast from Lagos and run arpund to upgrade lights at the venue, but the emergency interventions only highlighted what critics described as inadequate preparation for a major national championship.
All these setbacks came after the tip-off, which left spectators wondering about the federation’s long-term vision for the competition, but Udezue insists the NBBF had a plan to upgrade the facilities, though he admitted further that issues of logistics delayed the installation.
Even after the competition was underway, the opening days of the league phase were disrupted by a power failure, while the playing equipment also came under scrutiny, but Udezue argued that such glitches can occur even in major international leagues.
“We had already decided to improve the lighting and change the upright before it got damaged. We couldn’t change the systems by Sunday as originally planned because of a little hitch the manufacturers got at the Lagos airport,” Udezue disclosed.
