Godfrey Gaiya, the Chairman, House of Representatives. Committee on Sports, on Monday urged President Goodluck Jonathan not to entrust the rehabilitation of the six national stadia to the National Sports Commission (NSC).
Gaiya, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that instead, the government should lease the stadia to the private sector.
The lawmaker said that this is because any amount handed over to the NSC for the rehabilitation might not be judiciously spent.
He added, however, that if the rehabilitation must be entrusted to the NSC, then the Presidency should have an Intervention committee to liaise with it on the job.
He said the NSC had not been prudent in managing the funds budgeted for the completion of the 44 Mini Sports Centres across the country since 2009.
“So, I wonder why additional funds should be handed to the commission when projects entrusted to it in the past have yet to be finished.
“How can we use about N60 billion to build a facility like the Abuja Stadium and to maintain it becomes a problem.
“Sometime in May, I took my committee members to the stadium on a facility tour, what we saw was an eyesaw.
“It was an embarrassment and a big shame that a country like ours, does not have a befitting national stadium worthy to host a sports competition.
“It is destroying the image of Nigeria before the whole world,” Gaiya said.
According to Gaiya, sports in the country would continue to nosedive unless the dilapidated facilities were put in order and new ones provided.
NAN reports that President Jonathan had a fortnight ago set up a Presidential Committee on stadia facilities, headed by the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdulahi, NSC’s Director General, Dr Patrick Ekeji and the FCT Minister, Sen. Bala Muhammed, were among the committee members.
The committee was expected to work out modality for the rehabilitation of the six national stadia located at Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu, Ibadan and Abuja.
The Federal Government while setting up the committee said that henceforth, sporting facilities in the county would receive maximum attention. (NAN)