President Buhari To Host Team Nigeria, Basketball Teams

President Muhammadu Buhari is set to host members of Team Nigeria who placed second at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco.

The President will as well host D’Tigers and D’Tigress for their recent exploits at the FIBA World Cup and the FIBA AfroBasket for women respectively.

According to Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, who briefed journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, said that a decision would soon be taken on the appropriate date for the reception.

He said the African Games outing would be used as a benchmark for the 2020 Olympics preparation.

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Nigeria won a total of 121 medals, including 46 gold, 33 silver and 47 bronze at the game.

Egypt emerged overall winners with 99 gold medals, 96 silver and 69 bronze to bring their total medals to 264. South Africa came third with a total of 87 medals.

Defending champions D’Tigress progress to final with win Maii in the semi-finals on Friday (image courtesy: FIBA)
Dare said Team Nigeria had only seven weeks to prepare, saying it would have been better they had a longer period to do this.

The minister, who said the athletes would leave for the Doha meet on Saturday, added that the outcome would determine Nigeria’s performance at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, the minister, who spoke on the dilapidated stadiums across the country, said it would require N1.2 billion annually for maintenance.