A veteran Nigerian basketball coach with roughly 22 years in the profession has thrown his support behind Gift Uchenna’s grassroots development work, while calling on the government to invest more in youth sport. Kona said many grassroots coaches were developing young players through personal passion rather than structured support, and warned that the shortfall was pushing talented athletes towards countries with better facilities and opportunities.
He noted that Nigeria has produced several basketball players who now represent other nations because of the prospects available to them. He pushed back against using height as the sole criterion for identifying talent, stressing that skills, discipline and intelligence were equally important.
Kona urged authorities to involve experienced sports practitioners in policy formulation rather than relying on bureaucrats and politicians. "If the government wants to make sport better, work with people in that industry," he said. He added that inadequate infrastructure and poor athlete welfare would continue to drive Nigerian prospects abroad.
He also pointed to basketball’s wider social value, saying the sport had helped young people secure university places, employment and opportunities overseas while providing a constructive alternative to negative influences. Greater grassroots investment, he argued, would lift Nigeria’s international results and create sustainable careers for young people.
