Stakeholders Want Lagos To Take Charge Of National Stadium.

The decision of the Federal Government to concession the National Stadium in Lagos has prompted stakeholders to urge the Presidency to allow Lagos State Government take over the sports city.

They hinged their call on the rehabilitation work done by Lagos State Government at the stadium before and during the last National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012.

“It is justify if the federal government can hand over the National Stadium to Lagos State because the state has done a lot to ensure that the edifice did not rot away.

I could remember during the tenure of the former Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, he made a request to the federal government to take over the stadium so that Lagos can manage the stadium like others in the state.”

“Even the state government also did a lot to rehabilitate some part of the stadium during the Eko 2012 and this alone showed the interest of Lagos at ensuring that the sports city is in top shape,” one of the stakeholders, who pleaded anonymity said.

He added: “Lagos has more stadia that any state in the country and all these stadia are well maintained and what stops the state from taking care of the National Stadium if the Federal Government handover the edifice to the state.

Lagos remains the only state across the country that pays attention to its infrastructure and National Stadium will not be an exception. So, I don’t know why the government should not handover the stadium to Lagos. If other stadium are concession to state government, why not also do that for Lagos by giving the National Stadium to them to manage.”

They also urged the government to unveil the companies that will take over the stadiums in order to ascertain their ability to manage the structures.

The Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, told State House reporters after last week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) was already working out the process of the concession.

He hinted the maintenance of other national stadia located in Enugu, Bauchi, Kaduna and Ibadan were to be taken over by the state governments in order to ensure that they become functional.

Abdullahi added that President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the request by Enugu State Government to take over the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in the city, while Bauchi’s request to take over the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium was being considered.

According to him, the Federal Government would encourage Kaduna and Oyo states to also take over maintenance of the stadia in the two states.