By Otto Abut
The president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation, Luol Deng has expressed his interest to vie for a second term in the next elections expected to take place in February 2024.
Luol Deng confirmed his interest for second term as the SSBF President today Wednesday 6th in a press conference in Juba.
Luol’s four-year term in office as the president of the country basketball federation came to an end on November 24th this year, but the term was extended by the Minister of Youth and Sports until February 2024 to enable him prepare the national Basketball team for the upcoming Olympic Championship.
The incumbent SSBF president explained that some of his major goals for basketball growth were not achieved in the four-year term in office despite making the South Sudan Basketball team number one in Africa and qualifying for the Olympics that will be played in Paris 2024.
“I think my next, if I was to be elected or not to be elected; I want to focus on a lot of work that we need to achieve inside South Sudan. I think the first four years has been up and down but to be honest, I can say I have learned a lot.”
Luol added that his running for second term to making South Sudan dominate basketball for years as other African countries like Angola and Nigeria did
He revealed that he also wanted basketball to offer opportunities that can change the lives of young South Sudanese.
“For me to run again is on the purpose that I see South Sudan as bigger than as people say,” Luol added.
SSBF had received directives from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to conduct elections.
Early this week on Tuesday, Minister of Youth and Sports Geng Akech reiterated that the federation should conduct elections in February 2024 as per his previous directives.
However, he said Luol and his team should continue to lead in the few months remaining to federation election.
“Until such elections are held in February 2024, the current leadership of the federation led by Mister Luol Deng and his executive body will continue to stay in office,” Geng said.