FG To Lease Out 2 Stadia, Games Villa

Sports Minister Suleiman Yusuf, says the Federal Government plans to concession the two National stadiums in Lagos and Abuja under the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Suleiman told The Tidesports source in Addis Ababa that the proposed PPP would also include the Games Village, Lagos and some other sporting facilities in the country.

“I will work out the concession arrangement through a PPP to manage our sporting facilities in Lagos and Abuja.

“We will arrange a partnership with Taraba State Government on the Mambilla High Performance Sport Centre,” Suleiman said.

“The partnership will provide an arrangement for a private sector to manage the National Stadium, Lagos, the Abuja National Stadium and the Games Village, Lagos,’’ the minister said.

Suleiman, who is Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC), said apart from managing the facilities, the arrangement would also ensure maximum utilisation of all facilities, currently rotting away.

On the High Performance Sports Centre in Mambilla, Suleiman said the ministry would partner with Taraba Government to make the centre functional.

“I will visit the centre and discuss partnership arrangement with Taraba State Government,’’ he said.

Suleiman said the ministry would also engage its counterpart in education to revive sporting activities, especially in private schools across the country.

“I have already discussed with the Minister of  Education on the need to ensure that all private schools both primary and secondary have the requisite sporting facilities before they are registered,’’ Suleiman said.

He said one of the identified problems was that private primary and secondary schools were not under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education.

Suleiman said he would take the same initiative with the Federal Ministry of Housing to ensure that as a matter of policy, all estates fulfil a requirement of siting sporting facilities before they were approved.

He said in effort to revamp sports culture, especially among students and the youth, the Nigerian Sports Academy headed by Segun Odegbami, would revive the inter-state and intra-schools sports in the country.

“The academy will regenerate all sports, not only football. With this, we will revamp sports from primary to colleges and also in all institutions of higher learning across the country,’’ Suleiman said.

Tidesports source reports that Suleiman was in Addis to chair the 4th Conference of African Ministers of Sports, organised by the AU Commission.