3rd September, 2024
The South African Consulate in Abuja has denied players of the Nigerian U-18 boys’ basketball team visas to participate in the 2024 FIBA U18 Afrobasket.
This hurts the chances of the Nigerian boys to participate in the tournament. Nigeria is scheduled to face Egypt in the tournament on Tuesday.
Reacting, The Vice Chairman of the Youth Development Committee of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Ugo Udezue, who is already in Pretoria, said: “First of all, it’s rather unfortunate that an African country needs a visa to travel to another African country. Secondly, this is against the spirit of sportsmanship. These kids have sacrificed too much for a visa consular officer to deny them the opportunity to represent Nigeria globally.”
“The act of refusing the team visas seems like a deliberate attempt to stop the Junior D’Tigers, as the South African Embassy in Lagos cleared the girls to travel, and they are already in Pretoria and set for their opening match against Egypt on Tuesday”.
