In a series of tweets on Friday, Sunday Dare revealed that the National Stadium in Surulere has been completely abandoned for over 17 years before his administration came into power in 2019.
According to the minister, it was when he became the sports minister that his administration started working to bring the stadium back to life starting with the pitch, scoreboard, and tracks.
Dare however lamented that his administration does not have access to the kind of funds needed to completely fix the stadium. He noted that the sports ministry has just 500 million naira of the 21 billion naira needed for the total renovation of the site.
The minister wrote, “The National Stadium Surulere, Lagos: Just the Facts. Not Fallacies.
“Upon assumption of office in 2019, I met the National Stadium in a completely run-down state. Left to rot for almost 17-plus years. No renovations (or) upgrades. Illegal occupants had taken over. The Illegal occupants had distorted the original plan. We immediately set down to work at the ministry. First, the task force removed all illegal occupants and locked out miscreants. Next, we sought funding from private partners as budget allocation was insufficient.
Old damaged and clogged up water drainage system gutted out and new ones installed. The second phase of the tartan tracks was installed; awaiting the final phase, followed by lane marking. One digital scoreboard as originally fitted into the stadium has been fully installed.”
He added, “This is what we met and we started work on the main bowl. Our target was to fix three of the 15 critical aspects of the Surulere stadium. The pitch, scoreboard, and tartan tracks. We faced delays but we never stopped. 80 percent of these three works have been completed.
“What is needed to fix the National Stadium Surulere after 17 plus years of neglect is more than 21 billion naira, about 45 million dollars, of which we have just about 500m naira from private and government funding. There is a limit to what can be fixed”.
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