We need N40b to fix National Stadium, Lagos, says Dare

[FILES] lagos national stadium. Photo; GOAL

Minister for Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, has revealed that fixing the National Stadium, Lagos would cost about N40 billion.

The national edifice, which was constructed in 1972 ahead of the 1973 All Africa Games hosted by Nigeria, has been in bad shape since the Federal Government abandoned it after the construction of the Abuja National Stadium.

Successive ministers since the return of democracy in 1999 had promised to rehabilitate the arena during their tenures, only to serve out their terms without fulfilling that promise.

On assumption of duty as the country’s second sports minister under the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2019, Dare promised to ensure that the stadium returned to life before his tenure expires.

He got the buy-in of prominent businessman and philanthropist, Chief Kessington Adebutu, to help rehabilitate the stadium through the adopt-a-facility programme. But with barely two months to expiration of Dare’s tenure as sports minister, the stadium is still in a sorry state.

Following The Guardian’s report two days ago that revealed the current state of the stadium, Dare came to Lagos on Friday to inspect the facility.

He reaffirmed his commitment to return Stadium to its original architectural design, which, he said, is different from actually fixing it.

“We got just about N400 million from Chief Kessington Adebutu and the ministry, through the Federal Government, has in the last two years, spent over N200 million on this stadium.

“My budget to fix this stadium in a year is about N120 million. Yes, timelines were not met on the renovation, but those were issues beyond my control.

“As at three years ago, the estimate to fix this place was N21 billion, but