STAND UP FOR D’TIGRESS

Like the Super Facons, D’Tigress have demonstrated that hard work pays

Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, last Sunday emerged winners of the 2025 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket championship. It was Nigeria’s fifth in a row and the seventh overall. Although Senegal has won the tournament 11 times, it was never achieved consecutively as D’Tigress have done. Nigeria also confirmed her supremacy, remaining unbeaten in 29 matches that stretches way back to 2015. As the tournament’s  favourites for the title, D’Tigress did not take anything for granted right from the group phase as they stayed undefeated till the final. But the team’s route to this fifth consecutive title wasn’t on a platter. It was achieved through hard work, and painstaking resilience.

For D’Tigress, winning the 2025 edition of the continental showpiece was a reaffirmation that their quarterfinal feat at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games was no fluke. It was the first time ever that any African team, male or female, will qualify for that stage of the global basketball event. Now, winning the 2025 Afrobasket has also qualified the D’Tigress for the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualification tournament along with Mali, South Sudan and Senegal as Africa’s representatives. Coach Rena Wakama has also proved why she is as one of the best female basketball coaches around the world. At every stage of the competition, her break time game-changing tactics renergised D’Tigress and made the difference every time.

For Nigeria, Senegal posed their biggest threat at the semifinal stage. In that epic clash, the ladies from Dakar raced to an early 11-2 lead within the first three minutes of the opening quarter. Even when D’Tigress mounted a fight back, Senegal won the third quarter by 12 points. That effectively put them at the lead with 58-52 score line going into the final quarter. But with a 23-10 score in the fourth quarter to win with a 75-68 scoreline, D’Tigress hit the final to defend their crown against  Mali that stunned South Sudan in the other semifinal.

Expectedly, President Bola Tinubu has rewarded the victorious D’Tigress with $100,000 each in addition to National Honours of OON and a plot of land in the Federal Capital Territory, just like the Super Falcons who won the WAFCON in Morocco. But beyond these gifts, now is the time to ensure that we seize the momentum to fully develop the sports sector to truly play its role in becoming life-changing one for our youths. Nigeria can not stand to watch as others around the world benefit bountifully from the sports economy while we remain content with mere participation.

Sports is a multi-billion dollars industry that could employ millions of Nigerians if properly harnessed. Take this D’Tigress team for instance. Apart from Murjanatu Musa and Ifunaya Okoro who graduated from the domestic league into playing pro abroad, there is no local content in the team. The players are Nigerians who were born and weaned abroad. The Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) and the National Sports Commission (NSC) must draw up a programme to ensure that our domestic leagues are well funded through good sponsorships and run steadily on each calendar year

Finally, like Super Falcons, D’Tigress are ladies, just like Tobi Amusan who remains the only Nigeria with a world record in track & field. Retired policewoman, Chioma Ajunwa is the only individual Olympic Gold medalist. No male athlete has done any of these as an individual. The only Olympic gold medals Nigerian men can lay claim to were achieved at Atlanta ‘96 and the 4x400m relay quartet at Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Ever since, the Nigerian men have taken backstage, leaving only the ladies to shine. This is a major task for the Shehu Dikko-led NSC to find how to reset for Nigeria’s sportsmen to wake up from their slumber.