A foremost sports administrator and Patron of the Nigeria Olympics Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima, has lauded the Dangote Group for accepting to renovate the MKO Abiola stadium Abuja to the tune of one million US Dollars.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, flagged off and handed over the mainbowl pitch of the Moshood Abiola National stadium to the Dangote Group for the commencement of renovation by Messers Aron Nigeria Ltd.
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The renovation work on the pitch is expected to last for 24 weeks.
Representative of Dangote Group at the occasion, Engineer Ahmed Mansur, stated that the company was committing one Million US Dollars to the project to ensure that the pitch is restored to world class.
Speaking to Daily Trust on Thursday, Galadima expressed happiness that Dangote is finally venturing into Nigerian sports.
He also expressed optimism that the kind gesture by the business mogul would motivate other influential Nigerians to support the sports sector.
“For those of us in sports, one has to be happy that Dangote is now venturing into sports.
“He has done well in the area of philanthropy.
‘We have seen what he did in this time of COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also know what he has done in terms of employment opportunities for the teeming youths of Nigeria.
“For him to come into sports, we have to thank him for doing so.
‘His intervention will surely spur the private sector to come into sports and help in providing sporting facilities like indoor sports halls.
“Dangote has committed one million US Dollars but others can put in 500 thousand Dollars but it will go a long way in providing the much needed sports facilities at the zones,” he noted.
Galadima, however, expressed worry over lack of maintenance as he said it would amount to “beautiful nonsense”, if the MKO Abiola pitch is allowed to waste after gulping $1m in renovation.
“My only concern is maintenance.
“Dangote has done tremendously well by accepting to renovate the Abuja stadium but what happens after renovation?
Have they put in place anything in terms of maintenance?
“The minister of sports should go further by ensuring that there is maintenance of the edifice, if not the facility would go back to where it was before the intervention of Dangote,” he advised.
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