The Nigeria national basketball team, D’Tigers, will not participate in the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket championship after the team opted out of the qualifiers over lack of funds from the government. Despite several 2020 Olympians committing, D’Tigers will forfeit this AfroBasket Qualifiers window due to lack of funds from the government. The 2015 champions, drawn in Group B of the 2025 AfroBasket qualifiers alongside Cape Verde, Libya, and Uganda, were due to participate in the qualifying tournament scheduled for Tunisia in the next two days. Unfortunately, Nigeria will not participate in the qualifiers with the flight tickets for team members yet to be booked due to lack of funds.
This is not the first time that paucity of funds has threatened the D’Tigers’ participation in a major basketball tournament. Meanwhile, the Nigeria national football team, Super Eagles, recently participated at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations as President Bola Tinubu released 12 billion naira for the team heading into the tournament. It is unclear whether Mr Tinubu’s government will come up with a late intervention plan for the team to participate in qualifiers in the face of economic crisis raging the whole country as the naira continues to free fall.
