Moshood Abiola National Stadium

Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr Sunday Dare  has emphasized  that  Spending scarce resources to fix sporting infrastructure is more important than spending money to cut the grass  around the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja. The Minister believes merely cutting the grass would amout to not just  gross waste of scarce resources, but misplacement  of priorities. 

This  clarifications  became necessary  following  a misleading and out of context newspaper report that the  Minister said  a proposed  amount of 81m was received by the Ministry. 

A  statement  by the Minister’s  Media Adviser  John Joshua Akanji , said the headline  by the author of the story was   not only misleading, but  incongruous with the content  ” It has become imperative  and  a necessity to clear the air on the misleading headline by a newspaper  that the Minister  would spend 81 mullion to clear grass at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja . What the Minister  said was that  it would be wrong and a misplaced  priority  to spend a huge amount of 81 MIllion  to cut grass when there  are  so many other competing  matters  that  need to be attended to. The Minister  said” A one time clearing of the stadium wouls cost 81million. If I tell  Nigerians that I would be spending 81 million  to cut grass so that there would be no rats  and grasscutters, what do you think of their response. The same press  would condemn such action as waste of money and  misplacement of priorities.” Akanji  said this declaration  was made at a public  function.  

It is therefore  unethical, mischievous, unprofessional and unfair to twist the statement  to  suit the interest  of the writer. 

The  Moshood  Abiola National Stadium Abuja  which sits on a 43- hectare of land  has needed government attention for many years  until the Minister  convinced business mogul Alhaji Aliko Dangote to rehabilitate  it . Work is on-going  and is expected  to be completed  early next year.