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By ‘Tana Aiyejina.
Sports minister Sunday Dare says he received death threats after the sports ministry demolished illegal structures at the dilapidated National Stadium, Lagos three years ago.
Dare, who inspected the sports arena on Friday, said the ministry embarked on a drive to return the national monument to its original state after it was abandoned by successive governments, but met a brickwall from illegal occupants.
“When I came in, I met a place that was abandoned, there were hundreds of people here (stadium) partying, they had more than 108 illegal stores, this place wasn’t looking like a stadium. It was a market place. We had the boldness to start a task force. We gave every occupant the opportunity to present documents to show that they were there legally,” Dare said.
“This is because we made a statement that we would return this place to its original architectural design, so that we could even see what was here. Returning it to it’s architectural design is different from fixing it.
“After that we brought down more than 98 illegal stores inside the stadium. I was attacked, there were protests and I was even threatened that if I showed up here (stadium) I’ll be shot. We had a retired naval officer who I told, ‘you got to do it’ and he told me not to worry. We brought bulldozers to this place, there were pictures and videos. If people forget, we don’t forget. We have the history of this place. We did this with limited resources.”
Dare, on assumption of office August 2019, had embarked on the adopt-a-stadium initiative to renovate the decaying national stadiums across the country but the minister said after approaching sponsors, only billionaire businessmen Alike Dangote and Kessington Adebutu hearkened to his call, adding that the emergence of COVID-19 did not help matters.
“When we came on board, N21bn was what our estimation was to fix Surulere (Lagos stadium), keeping it in its original state, not adding anything. We have the documentation. For 19 years, this place laid waste. The expectation was that so many sponsors would come in.
“Don’t forget a full year was shaved away by COVID-19. Some people say we’ve done four years. No, we only had three years; before COVID-19 sponsors were waiting to give us money but after the pandemic, their businesses were gone or scaled down. I didn’t have the guts to approach some individuals any longer. Those I met said government should even give them COVID-19 palliative, it was really embarrassing.
“But Dangote came up for us for the Abuja stadium and that really got us excited. Premier Lotto (Adebutu) came up for Surulere and we presented everything that we wanted to fix and he chose the three things he could do in terms of priority: the football turf at the mainbowl, the score board, which was almost 40 years old then and the tartan tracks, which we only needed to resurface. Those were the three things for the N400m we got from Premier Lotto.
“So, we need N21bn, equivalent of $43m but we got N400m, less than four per cent of what we needed. And what the N400m promised to deliver, 80 per cent of that has already been completed. We met the pipes of the sprinklers for the pitch all rusted, the armoured cables worth N6.9bn in the stadium, all gone. So, we started the journey of redemption, it can’t be completed in two years, there’s no magic. Fixing a stadium isn’t building a two-bedroom apartment, so we know what we are doing. Yes there were delays, things were imported, timelines were not met but these are issues beyond my control.”