Stadium facilities construction expert, Ebi Egbe, has faulted the move by Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, to re-grass the Abuja National Stadium with N130million.
Egbe who was reacting to the minister’s statement early this week that the sports ministry in conjunction with a contractor have embarked on the re-grassing of the Abuja Stadium turf, said Dalung would only end up wasting government funds, insisting that N130million can’t give the multi-billion Naira edifice a befitting world-class turf.
“My heart bled when I read the Abuja Stadium story as told by the minister. Who are the experts the minister is working with? What are their pedigree? And what magic would they do to get the arena a natural high breed turf with N130m?
“I guess some people only want to smile to the bank with government money. In the first place, it is laughable to say that the problem of the pitch is the water channel or drainage. I have been to the stadium, took measurements, carried out scientific test of the soil and I can tell Nigerians in all honesty that water channel is not the problem of the stadium,” observed the facilities expert.
Egbe stressed that for the Abuja arena to have the kind of pitch found in places like Wembley,
Maracana, Cairo International Stadium or the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, the country must be ready to spend good money and stop the half measure contracts that are only meant to put food on the table for some boys or in this case the girls.
“I m into stadium construction and I know what I m talking about. Nigeria is bigger than what Dalung and his so-called experts are doing. Why can’t we think of getting world class turfs in Nigeria rather than deceiving ourselves? With what they are trying to do, Eagles would continue to play outside Abuja,” Egbe warned last night.
