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MKO Abiola Abuja Stadium Pitch Will Be Ready Soon- Minister

Published

6 years ago

August 24, 2019

MKO Abiola Abuja Stadium Pitch Will Be Ready Soon- Minister

Joel Ajayi

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, has assured that the pitch of Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja will soon be ready to host national and international matches.

He gave this assurance on Friday in Abuja, when he inspects the world-class facilities at the Abuja Stadium that is yet to host matches in the last 4 years.

Dare said that the ministry has placed the renovation of the national stadium to the state of the art facilities as top priority adding that Nigerians should expect the super Eagles play in Abuja soon.

“We are going to be innovative to see how we can get extra funding, and how we can privatize the football pitch, I don’t want to put a timeline, but it’s sufficient to say that is right at the top of our agenda, because we know it takes some time and Nigerians are interesting to See Super Eagles play in Abuja, the stadium will be ready soon” he said.

“I look at the page this afternoon and I looked at revenue-generating possibilities through advertising, we see that in international stadia where different companies advertise at the same time and a lot of revenue can come from there, we are thinking outside the box beyond what we get from our budget”.

“We can also generate some level of revenue, but the most important is for us to generate interest in the usage of this world-class facilities and once we do that it will serve as a magnet of areas that we can generate revenue.

“The fact that the velodrome is functional, that is what we should expect from all the facilities around the stadium and other facilities in the country”.

He further stated that other sports will get equal attention as football

“I understand that soccer is loved by most Nigerians, but in the same breath badminton cycling, Tennis and other sports will all get equal attention”.

“We will find a way to make sure that beyond football we will also get others sports up to speed, we have been charged to look for innovative ways to be able to generate funds for our ministry”.

Dare also used the opportunity to charged team Nigeria who are currently competing at the All Africa Games in Morocco to do the nation proud.

“We have done well in badminton, I know we are on our way to win the biggest laurel in Tennis, my message to them is that this country stands behind you and we are proud of you as an ambassador.”

“We believe in your talents and Nigeria are rooting for you, in Morocco to do us proud and I wish them the very best as they compete with other athletes from different countries” he concluded.

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Featured

CELEBRATING A CENTURY-OLD CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR TRAJECTORY IN NIGERIA

Published

1 week ago

December 1, 2025

The Gleamer

This week, millions of Nigerians and others across the globe will join the Ministry of Aviation and Space Development under the irrepressible leadership of the Honourable Minister, Festus Keyamo(SAN),and all the notable Aviation sector stakeholders in and outside the country,in celebrating a century of Nigeria’s civil aviation history.

There is no doubt that under the present leadership of the Honourable Minister and within the short spell of time in his stewardship,he has consciously and intentionally embarked on a “silent revolution” for the industry with very veritable and laudable landmarks that have consistently grown the industry.

Some of these spirited efforts for instance have consequently led to trust restoration amongst international lessors, financier,any global partners.Of note also is assidiously working for the full domestication and implementation of the “Cape Town Convention Agreement” ,which gives Airlines access to modern fleets of competitive rates as well as enforcement of IDERA(Irrevocable Deregulation and Export Request Authorization).

Having well applauded these vital contemporary initiatives,it will also be germane to cast our minds in retrospect by taking a peep into our history over several decades to recognise some of the notable forebears in the industry whose impressionabl efforts cannot be overlooked,as they took the impetuous initiatives of breaking the ice at the nascent stage.
It will aptly corroborate the truism which says that… ” a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”.

The above is vividly captured from a tribute by the First Republic Minister of Aviation Chief Mbazulike Amaechi at the funeral of late Igwe of Oba,HRH Peter Ezenwa(MFR) in 2018.
It states inter alia…”One significant thing I will say many people didn’t know is that the first indigenous airline that was to run in Nigeria was known as “STANDARD AIRLINE”.It was founded in 1966 by a company formed by Igwe Peter Ezenwa from Oba,and had on board,John Nwankwu from Abagana,Edward Ebo from Ezinifitte,(all from Anambra state),John Anyaehie from Nkwerre in Imo state,and lastly my very self Mbazulike Amaechi.
The five of us later acquired two brand new aircrafts,and had four pilots,namely;Unachievable,John Emma Ngwu and Felix Offor,who was to be the General Manager of the airline.
But just about the time for the take-off the crisis of the military takeover erupted in the North as the planes were on their way for delivery to us.In fact the bank handling the transaction was to allow the planes to be flown from the USA,but the news of the war broke out in 1967,the insurance company cabled for the cancellation of the deal as they will not be able to cover the risk cost of aircrafts being flown into war zone.
So,we asked the manufacturers to take the two aircrafts back to their country and hold on for six months with the hope of that the war will end within the requested time frame,but the war didn’t end as thought.We consequently asked for refund and they deducted some money and refunded the balance which was deposited at the London branch of African Continental Bank(ACB).

When the government took over the operations of ACB,we still hoped for the refund but unfortunately were disappointed that the Federal government took over the whole money and we lost everything.”

Further in line with our historical perspective,it will also be pertinent some of the later years reformists in the likes of Engr Onyereri and Harold Demuren who advertently sponsored some far reaching regulations that eventually steered the industry towards greater autonomy with the passage of the 2005 Civil Aviation Act,which I was also a prime participant of in my capacity as an Aviation sub chair in then House of Representatives.

As we mark this great century milestone,and with the clear evidential pathway set out by the current managers of the industry under the indomitable leadership of Honourable Minister, I do not see the sky posing any limitations as they say,but rather availing new vistas of limitless growth opportunities.

CONGRATULATIONS.

Hon Chidi Nwogu
Former member House of Representatives & presently Governing Council member
,African Aviation and Aerospace University,Abuja.

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