The Nation Newspaper

Tag: STADIUM

  • Okocha rips into Esuene Stadium pitch

    Okocha rips into Esuene Stadium pitch

    ormer Nigeria national team captain Austin Okocha is not impressed with the quality of the playing surface at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

    The Super Eagles play their home games at the stadium and many have criticised the pitch, particularly after the African champions’ 2-3 defeat to Congo in a 2015 African Nations Cup (AFCON) qualifier last Saturday.

    Okocha, who scored 14 goals in 75 appearances for the Super Eagles between 1993 and 2006, watched Nigeria’s game against South Africa in Cape Town on Wednesday and was quick to make comparisons with what he saw in Calabar.

    “(Nigeria versus South Africa). Beautiful compared to the Calabar match. How green grass can transform (and) beautify a match. Also allows players to express themselves,” Jay Jay wrote on Twitter via his account @IAmOkocha.

    Okocha’s comments about the pitch have not gone down well with the Cross River State government, owners of the U.J. Esuene Stadium.

    Commissioner for Sports Patrick Ugbe said the pitch in Calabar is not in bad shape.

    “The pitch is in good condition. It is a work in progress. We are in the process of resodding the pitch,” Ugbe told supersport.com.

    He also revealed that the Cross River State government only allowed the Super Eagles to play on the pitch against Congo “in the interest of the nation”.

    “It was in the interest of the nation that we allowed the match to be played on that pitch in the first place because we are obviously working on it.

    “The coaches (of Nigeria and Congo) saw the pitch before the match and they expressed satisfaction with the state of the pitch so I don’t know what the issue is all of a sudden”.

  • Eagles hold first training session today

    Eagles hold first training session today

    •To have the remaining sessions at UJ Esuene Stadium

    The country’s senior national team, the Super Eagles will have their first training session this morning at the Abraham Ordia Training Pitch at the University of Calabar(UNICAL). The training  session will start by 7.30am and it will be conducted under the supervision of head coach, Stephen Keshi and his lieutenants – Daniel Amokachi, Valere and Ike Shorounmu.

    Besides today’s training session , the Super Eagles will have their subsequent training sessions at the UJ Esuene Stadium – the venue for the Saturday’s AFCON clash.

    Eagles’ Team Coordinator, Emma Attah made this known to SportingLife at the Transcorp Hotel base of the team yesterday in Calabar.

    “We are going to train at the Abraham Ordia Stadium inside UNICAL by 7.30am tomorrow (today) but we shall have our subsequent training at the venue of the match after tomorrow’s (today’s) session.”

  • Calabar stadium…Eagles’ slaughter slab

    Calabar stadium…Eagles’ slaughter slab

    As the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Nigeria and Rwanda kicks off in Calabar on September 6, residents of the capital of Cross Rivers State hopes the magic, which has made the Super Eagles unable to lose a match at the UJ Esuene Stadium, will still work, writes NICHOLAS KALU

    It is not a smelly, blood stained building where animals are butchered, but has come to be known as the Slaughterhouse.

    The serene atmosphere of the Udoakaha Jacob Esuene Sports Stadium located in the heart of Cross River State’s capital, Calabar, has been so christened by football lovers and supporters of the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles, which has not lost a single game there in the past few years.

    The grounds of the facility, simply referred to as the UJ Esuene Stadium, has in recent times served as the venue where the national team consistently beat their opponents, hence it has been termed, “The slaughterhouse of the Super Eagles.”

    Built in 1976, the multi-purpose stadium has served as the home ground of the Calabar Rovers Football Club. After its commissioning in the same year, the first match was played there was between Calabar Rovers and Bendel Insurance.

    A couple of weeks later, the stadium hosted an international encounter between Enugu Rangers and Tonnerre Yaoundé – a game that featured the likes of Roger Milla, Christian Chukwu and Emmanuel Okalla

    Later upgraded to include an ultra-modern electronic video-matrix scoreboard, with powerful floodlights, the stadium has a capacity of about 12,000.

    Since then the sporting arena has continued to attract various national and international sporting activities among which are the FIFA Under-21 World Cup in 1999 and the FIFA Under-17 in 2009.

    At the moment preparations are in top gear for the sporting facility to host the 19th edition of the National Sports Festival in November this year.

    So what is the magic of the Calabar Stadium? The Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Mr Patrick Ugbe, says the thing special about it is the people.

    “The magic is the people of this state and this city. You see, when you have an ambience of peace and security, you have an environment that is welcoming, when you have that kind of environment, you know all you can do is to excel because you are relaxed. You are not stressed. You are not bothered about other extraneous things that can distract your focus. So you are focussed on the task you have and you just excel. That is what Calabar does.

    “That is why the national team has always excelled here. And because again when the national team is playing, you have over 10, 000 people in the stadium that are there to support them, not to criticise them or heckle them or boo them, but there to cheer them. It encourages them and gives them that boost. So the fans in Calabar act as the 12th player that encourages the team to always excel,” Ugbe said.

    On how it got its peculiar nomenclature he said: “The people gave it that name. We didn’t give it the slaughter house of the Super Eagles. It came from the people themselves after seeing that, for several years, now, the team has not lost a match in this place and very significant that even outside the country, teams that come to Calabar to play the eagles now come with fear. They now see Calabar as the slaughter house. Nigeria never loses a match here, so they come to play with fear which again also helps psychologically to ensure victory for the team.

    With the hosting of the sports festival almost upon them, Ugbe expressed confidence that the stadium, whose facilities are being upgraded as well as new ones added would be ready to give the country the best festival ever.

    According to him: “We are sure it would be ready. The facilities that are being added apart from the main bowl and the tartan track that has been renovated and relayed with a brand new class one track, are the swimming pool that is being renovated to a ten lane Mitre Technology Pool. Also there is the basketball courts that are being redone and then for me among others. For me, the icing on the cake would be the multi-purpose ultra-modern indoor sports hall that is being constructed there. It is one design that has never been seen in this country. When it is completed, it is one that we would all be proud of as a people and as a state.

    “The facility is one that would host all indoor games. It would have basketball, volleyball, handball, five aside FifPro footsal, and badminton and also attached to it are two glass back international standard squash courts as well. Of course added to it are other facilities and amenities as different gyms for boxing, weightlifting, wrestling and so on. So it is a well fitted indoor sports hall that we are having.

    Ugbe said a proper maintenance culture over time has been one of the main reasons it has continued to remain relevant in the scheme of things as far as sporting activities are concerned.

    His words: “The stadium is one of the oldest in the country. It falls in the generation of the National Stadium in Lagos, Ogbe Stadium in Benin, Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, but today because of the way we have maintained it, it stands out among all those other stadiums. Because we have a good maintenance culture, we have constantly attracted events here.  The national teams have made it their home and we are very proud of our maintenance culture. Don’t think that it is now that we would throw that away.”

    Manager of the Stadium, Mr Omara Coco-Bassey believes that Calabar being the home of football as the game was first played in the country in a secondary school, Hope Waddell Training Institution, just a stone throw away, it was only natural that the National Team always get their best results there.

    “You know this is where football was first played in Nigeria. In a secondary school which is nearby, Hope Waddell. So, Calabar has always been a home of football. So, it is not a surprising thing that you see even the national team, they prefer coming to Calabar Stadium to play their matches. Besides you know this is a tourist state and the people are very warm. Again you see that it is a smaller stadium, so you realise that any time any match is being played, the stadium is filled to capacity.

    “It has been favourable for the national team. The people too are very receptive and very willing to support.  The major thing is that since they started playing here, it has been very favourable and one thing I realise with the Calabar people is that they are very patient. Like you know if they play in Lagos and after some minutes if they don’t score, they would start booing them, but rather here they would be saying, “All we are saying is give us more goals”. They are patient with the players. They understand. It makes you feel comfortable when the people have confidence in you that come rain come shine, you are going to deliver so it makes the players even more relaxed. So it gives them the confidence that when they come here, they will win and since they have not been failed before,” the stadium manager said.

    On measures to keep the facility in top condition especially as they host the sports festival, he said, “It has always been our culture to keep the stadium in good shape all round. In 2009 apart from the national stadium, this was the only stadium that had a natural turf to play. Other stadia because of poor maintenance, Jack Warner said they should go on astro-turf. So it is not a new thing for us. We would make sure the facilities are kept in place and it has always been our culture. There is no way the thing would go down.

    “The grass has just been replanted. After 2009 we regrassed the pitch. Now because we are hosting the National Sports Festival, we are regrassing again. The tartan track you are seeing is just two months old. Everything is new. We are getting set and you know what matters most is the playing turf. As you can see people are still working on the turf and we would make sure it is up to standard and what the national team would not have any complain to play on.

    As the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Nigeria and Rwanda kicks off in Calabar on September 6 it is hoped the magic which has lasted for so long would continue to ensure victory for the Super Eagles.

  • Ebimobowei vows to shoot down Kaduna United

    Ebimobowei vows to shoot down Kaduna United

    Bayelsa United  highest goal scorer, Peter  Ebimobowei has promised to shoot down Kaduna United today in their Glo Premier League Week 24 cracker at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.

    Ebimobowei has scored 10 goals so far this season and he is the third leading scorer behind Enugu Rangers’ Ighodalor Osagona (13 goals)and Kano Pillars’ Rabiu Ali (11 goals).

    But the soft spoken striker has stated that he is eyeing the highest goals scorer’s title and that against Kaduna United today he would add to his goals tally.

    “I will strive to add to the goals I have against Kaduna United. I know that it won’t be easy but with God on my side I will make it.

    “We are not in a good position on the league table and it the more so why I should ensure that I score goals against Kaduna United,” Ebimobowei stated.

     

  • Bayelsa to expedite work on Samson Siasia Stadium

    The Bayelsa State Government has promised to immediately release funds to contracting firms involved in the renovation of the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa.

    The firms were hired to lay a new organic fibre turf on the football pitch of the stadium and to create tartan tracks.

    The state’s Commissioner for Sports, Ebikitin Diongoli, said all problems bedvelling the stadium including the poor drainage system at the exterior part of the complex would be addressed. He regretted that the development had compelled football teams of the state to play their league matches in the neighbouring states. He assured that the football teams would soon return to play their home games at the stadium.

    Diongili spoke in Yenagoa when the contractor and Managing Director of MoniMichelle Sports Facilities Construction Company, Mr. Ebi Egbe and the representative of the FIFA-rated Organic Fibre Turf company, Limonta Sports, paid him a visit.

    He said the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson was focused on completing the project to encourage sports tourism through organisation of local and international matches.

    Earlier, Egbe said the Italy-based company, Limonta Sports, was handling the laying of the organic turf. He said the company had given a pass mark to the stone base and internal drainage required to lay the turf.

    Egbe said that the football pitch would be ready within 11 weeks adding that “MoniMichelle as a company works within FIFA-approved specification”.

    “Dickson is trying with the opening of the state to the international community. We that are in the sports sector must key in and open up sports tourism”, he said.

    Egbe, however, expressed worry over the poor drainage system and blamed food vendors outside the stadium complex for dumping into the drains constructed by the state government.

    “The drainage outside the stadium is bad. The state governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson has done his best and constructed a befitting road network with proper drains but the people have failed to keep it clean.

    “If we don’t get the drainage system outside the stadium right, FIFA may not approve the ongoing renovation being done. The drainage is key to the project because we want to woo FIFA and the international sports community to Bayelsa State.”

    On his part, the representative, Limonta Sports company, Mr. Florin Lemonta, commended the state government for its decision to raise the standard of the facilities in the complex and gave a pass mark to the stone base of the football pitch done by MoniMichelle.

    Lemonta however called on the Bayelsa State Government to expedite action on the clearing of the blocked drainage outside the stadium complex as it may destroy the world-class organic fibre turf expected to be laid.

  • Aper Aku stadium: Expatriates commences work on the final stage of the playing pitch

    Expatriates who specialise in coconut fibre are currently working on the Playing pitch of Aper Aku stadium, the home of Lobi stars in Makurdi.

    When Sportinglife visited the stadium , workers were seen laying the shock absolving system, preparatory for sand, then, coconut fibre and cock before the grassing.

    Shock absorbing system on a football pitch enhance the performance of players and keep it cooler. It’s also gives comfortability players and reduce injury. However, Sportinglife observed that the stadium contract had no provision for springer which control ball behavior.

    MR. Ebi Egbe, the contractor handling the upgrading of the Aper Aku told sporting life that ,his firm would use the period of the completion of the stadium to and the state government to installed springers in the stadium .

    Chairman of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Comrade Uja Emmanuel advised the Benue state government as a matter of policy to extend the contract to covering maintenance and installation new running track for a period of 10 years to for proper monitoring .

    Comrade Uja stated that from experience , government spent billions on projects but lack of maintenance led to decay of same projects .

    The SWAN chairman advised Governor Gabriel Suswam to used the National Stadium Sulurere, Lagos, as an example ,which was one of the best ,but now in decay for lack of proper maintenance and extend the contact for the upgrading of Aper Aku to cover maintenance.

    Governor Gabriel Suswam said he would give soccer loving people of Benue state a new stadium as a parting gift of his administration .

  • Bayelsa to expedite work on Siasia Stadium

    Bayelsa State government has promised to release funds to the firms involved in the renovation of the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa.

    The contractors were hired to lay a new organic fibre turf on the football pitch of the stadium and create tartan tracks.

    The Commissioner for Sports, Mr. Ebikitin Diongoli, said the problems facing the stadium, including the poor drainage at the exterior part of the complex, would be addressed.

    He said it was regrettable that the development had compelled the state’s football teams to play their league matches in neighbouring states.

    Diongoli assured that the clubs would soon return to play their home matches at the stadium.

    He spoke in Yenagoa when the contractor and the Managing Director of MoniMichelle Sports Facilities Construction Company, Mr. Ebi Egbe and the representative of the FIFA-rated organic fibre turf company, Limonta Sports, visited him.

    The commissioner said the Governor Seriake Dickson administration was focused on completing the project to encourage sports tourism through the organisation of local and international matches.

    Egbe said the Italian-based company, Limonta Sports, was handling the laying of the organic turf.

    He said the company had been given a pass mark on the stone base and internal drainage required to lay the turf.

    Egbe said the football pitch would be ready within 11 weeks, adding that the “MoniMichelle as a company works within FIFA-approved specification.”

  • The beautiful game is not in the stadium this world cup

    The beautiful game is not in the stadium this world cup

    The Poor become irrepressible upon discovering they have everything to gain. They become invincible upon discovering they have nothing to lose 

    The World Cup started roughly 10 days ago. Around the world, most people will focus on the games played within the precise white lines painted on the lush greenery of the stadia floors. Viewers will be guaranteed a fine spectacle as the world’s best footballers battle to obtain their sport’s sacred prize. There also will be another game afoot (forgive the pun). For the socially conscious, this latter game is the most beautiful and significant of the matches to be played. It is a unique one such that, by merely playing, those who initiated it have achieved something profound. This game is the collective street demonstrations against the World Cup and its clumsy local architects, an insensitive and spendthrift government, for having spent so much on a sporting lark while devoting so little to the ways and means of the poor and the poorer.

    Many of us will be irked by the protests. We want to view the games unencumbered by Brazil’s stark, harsh economic realities. For the rest of us, the World Cup is the utmost sport’s fantasy. It is a dream-like break from the diurnal grind and gruel. However, nothing is free, not even dreams. This particular one is being paid in real coin by the Brazilian rank and file. Because we are not in Brazil, we lack empathy for the demonstrators. Their hurt is too distant for us to feel. Thus, many see the protesters as interlopers in their own land. People will hope that they are removed so the games continue unimpeded and without the mist of injustice the demonstrations cast on the event. Too many of us feel not the people’s plight and are disinterested in their causes. We are perturbed that they interrupt the glamorous sport we expect to see on our televisions. Their demonstrations turn the atmosphere around the beautiful game into one more closely associated with a society that nurses its people from the bitterest cup.

    Government and business leaders downplay the protests, claiming them the work of an extreme few.  While acknowledging the high costs of hosting the Cup, the country’s elite asserts the exercise is a worthwhile matter of “national pride.” At such dear expense, wisdom says that pride becomes a luxury ill-afforded by a nation with a teeming population of outcast poor. Pride is a fine contemplation by the properly fed, well housed and adequately clad. However, the type of pride of which the wealthy think has little place among the poor and humble. Pride does not clad or protect the bared foot that must tread the hard road of impoverished life. Pride puts neither onion nor chicken in the cooking pot. Pride does not keep the rain from leaking through a hovel’s shattered roof.

    Talk of national pride from those who taste and enjoy things of material excess is the waste water from the hogwash. Four years ago, such propaganda dazzled the average South African and much of Africa. Africans were ecstatic that one of their nations was selected to host the expensive affair. For the elite it was a true honour. For the poor, it would become a surreptitious burden. The nation paid a princely sum to win the purported honour.  It would pay a thousand king’s ransoms to make the world’s most elaborate soccer match occur. Africans beamed proudly that South Africa proved able to build the large stadia and infrastructure essential to the games. Yet, that outburst of pride was disappointingly jejune. A stupefying racial inferiority had crept into the space that historic perspective and racial confidence should have occupied. Looking at the Pyramids, one would be reminded Africans have been constructing large buildings for some time. The South African construction challenge would be met. However, it would be with costs aplenty.

    The most charitable objective measure would show that the World Cup had a negligible positive economic effect, at best.  Most other accurate measures would say it did more economic harm than good when looking at its effect on the urban poor. The funds used would have had greater benefit if used to enhance social services. Instead, money was spent on stadia many of which are rarely used and falling into disrepair. Jobs were created during the construction binge. But the tasks were transient. The employment exited as soon as the footballers came.

    Tourist money came but mostly went to the high-end local and international hoteliers and official vendors that support events like the World Cup. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of poor shanty dwellers and squatters were uprooted to make room for the construction or simply because they were eyesores the South African government wanted to hide. They hoped to give the impression South Africa had conquered apartheid. To accomplish this public relations feat, they simply removed the unsightly poor from vision. If you don’t see the poor, they do not exist was the logic. Poor South Africans would remain mum to the ill treatment for they had been promised that they too would profit from the games if they only exercised patience. It was only after the competition had ended, did the South African poor realise the game had been mostly played on their backs. They had been conned into believing they would sip the nectar, only to realise the intention was always to have the chalice pass over them. By the time they realised they had been inveigled, the parade had left. It had left them behind to sweep up the detritus of the great event and its numerous revelers.

    Having seen the Cup’s ill-effects on South Africa, socially-conscious Brazilians would not sit quietly as their government planned a repeat of the sordid economic injustice committed in South Africa. They took to the streets, this time not to carnival but to canvass against the waste of the event. Because of this, the most important game played now in the samba nation will not be found in any stadium.  This game pits the will and mood of the people against the business-as-usual approach of a government that appears not to sense the mood of the people it claims to lead.

    Many people view Brazil as the official home of football. Yet, 61 percent of the nation opposes hosting the World Cup or, at least, the high price tag (11.3 billion dollar) associated with the rollicking affair. This is a nation known for its zest for music, carnival and sand and sport. Its people are thought of as being serious at taking nothing seriously. The protests destroy that stereotype, bringing us closer to the reality of these people. It is good to view another person’s reality. In doing so, at times, you get a better hold of your own.

    Brazil is a charter member of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), that exclusive club of large, middle-income nations of growing international economic clout. Despite this fine status, Brazil is home to some of the most wretched neighborhoods imaginable. The social and economic topography of the city of Rio de Janeiro reverses the normal trend. In most cities, the rich occupy the hills and high ground while the poor huddle below. In Rio, poor favelas litter the hills as the rich occupy the choice coastal ground. Life in the favelas is not for the squeamish. It is a hard and violent maelstrom of poverty, despair, illicit activity, sickness and premature death. You don’t flourish in these neighborhoods; you merely survive them. This is the life of tens of millions of Brazilians, and these Brazilians represent billions of people around the world.

    They like football; but, they are considerably fonder of their families. They don’t dream of the chance of seeing another beautifully-played game brought to them at the costs of billions of dollars. They dream of living a beautiful life. This is not to belittle the social utility of sports.

    There is something about sporting events that help the human psyche cope with what confronts it. However, that respite comes attached to trenchant opportunity costs. Paying for the World Cup means government foregoing something else. As in South Africa, while the construction was ongoing, jobs were created. They are now gone.  Some service jobs will increase during the games but they too will vanish at the final whistle. Infrastructural improvements were made that will help even after the games. However, these projects were geared to serve the logistical requirements of the games. Thus, this new infrastructure will not be optimal once things return to normal. It will be of reduced inefficiency over the long-term, a good investment poorly made. Put more bluntly, the long-term utility of the projects does not equal the expense of the things. This especially applies to the high-cost stadia. After the games, these expensive structures will be of little value. They will become inactive and then start to decay.

    The World Cup is a spectacular event. We all love to watch it, except those uninitiated to the game. Even they are coming to embrace it. However, not every nation should host such a thing. For nations with large percentages of poor people to spend money on this escapade is a noisome decision revealing either an ignorance of the economic consequences of the games or a cold indifference to the lives of the poor and broken in society. The people of Brazil have seen a great pile of money tossed into games that will avail them little. They wonder why more funds can’t be targeted to services and activities that would avail their lives much.  Thus, many have taken to the streets.

    What they do will not halt the games; but, what they do should remind us that no game is more important than the people’s welfare. Their protests will mar the glamour of the event. In a way that is sad. But what they do is of greater value than the glamour of the event. This is because their efforts speak to the humanitarian spirit. They are like poor relatives coming to the rich man’s party to remind him the money he stole had paid for the lavish affair. They seek recompense. The confrontation is awkward to see, but necessary to occur. Justice demands such confrontations so that we remember who is the true giver and taker, who is right and who is wrong.

    Making established powers uncomfortable and exposing their injustice is how progress is attained. In real life, this is the beautiful game. As you watch your favorite team pursue the World Cup, remember that all that is at stake in this arena is a shiny cup. The greater game is being outside the stadia because it will determine whether more quality will be injected into the lives of the average Brazilian.  This is the real people’s game, even if many people seem oblivious to it. No matter the immediate outcome of the protests, the people have already won something just by demonstrating against an elite event once politically unassailable because the people held it in rapt awe. The Brazilians now demonstrate that at least in one nation the people are no longer to be distracted from their unjust reality no matter how beautiful the game used to beguile them.

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  • Gombe converts stadium to driving school

    • Owes N1.2bn

    The famous Abubakar Umar Memorial Stadium has been converted to a driving school to generate revenue and because of the government’s inability to complete the facility many years after its construction began.

    Chairman, Gombe State Sports Commission, Farouk Yarma revealed this on Wednesday while conducting the state governor round the facility as part of the inspection tour of sporting facilities in the state.

    He said a portion of the stadium land had been encroached by private property developers, even as the facility is at the brink of erosion devastation.

    He told the governor that the stadium was banned from hosting Nationwide League games due to the non-television friendly nature of the pitch with the little grass covering withered.

    Moved by the deplorable condition of the facilities, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo pledged to upgrade the Abubakar Umar Memorial Stadium and the vast expanse of surrounding land to a games village.

    Governor Dankwambo also assured the management and players of Gombe United FC that a new Players’ Camp was underway to replace the present ramshackle one.

    He encouraged the Sports Commission to choose and concentrate on the development of a few sports as a short run strategic development plan.

    The governor also advised on the need to reawaken school sports saying his administration had already set the ball rolling by ensuring that facilities are created in all the schools he had constructed or renovated since coming to power.

    He said his inspection was to enable him know what need(s) to capture in the budget, beginning from next year.

    He said part of his administration’s determination was to encourage sports in the state but the N1.2 billion outstanding payment owed by the previous administration for the construction of Pantami Stadium would affect the resources at his government’s disposal.

  • Aper Aku Stadium alleged abandonment Monimichelle: This is our story

    Following different media reports that the Benue State was set to arrest the contractor handling the Aper Aku Stadium for abandoning project after claims that he had been paid the N175 million full mobilizaton fee, Monimichelle boss last week visited the corporate head office of The Nation/SportingLife to give his own side of the story.

    Below is the excerpt of the interview conducted by Innocent Amomoh, Rasaq Oboirien and John Ebhota.

     

    Could you tell us about yourself, what you do for a living?

    My names are Ebi Egbe, I’m a FIFA licensed football player’s agent, I’m the president of Monimichelle sports facility construction Ltd, my company is into sport facilities design and construction.

     

    Can we hear your own side of the story concerning Aper Aku Stadium which the Benue State alleged that you abandoned?

    Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to set the records straight to the Benue people and Nigerians, about this project. Negotiation for this contract started in 2009, price agreed was in 2009. His Excellency Gabriel Suswan personally invited me for this bid. He had seen one of our installations at the Samson Siasia stadium in Yanegoa. I went into the bid process with other contractors and eventually won the bid in 2009. His Excellency the governor of Benue State wanted the project completed as soon as possible. So I was handed over to one Chief Kasso who was the then Director of Sports in Benue state, Kasso then handed me over to the then Commissioner of Sports in Benue State Ministry of Sports, it took the ministry over 10 months to put an agreement together between Monimichelle and the Benue State Ministry of Sport, by the time we eventually signed the contract it was almost 12 months after I won the bid. The contract sum as negotiated 12 months before the contract was signed was N175 million.

     

    So when did the problem begin?

    After signing the contract in 2010 Nov, we agreed a 30% mobilization fee immediately after signing. It took the Benue State government 8 months to pay 15% of the 30% mobilization fee, and I was under pressure to get the pitch completed as fast as possible by the Benue state government. I used part of the 15% paid to me to deposit for the production of the materials because our materials are bespoke, my manufactures FIFA preferred producers of Astro Turf (LIMONTA Sports Italy) commence full production of the Aper Aku stadium lead free turf that is 95% close to natural turf, 100% organic coconut fibre and cork lufill, shock drain system, geotex tiles, FIFA approved goal post corner flags, goal post net, reserve bench you name it that is required for a complete FIFA approved 104 x 68 2 star soccer pitch and we also commenced the first stage of the sub base construction by excavating the existing top soil.

    Benue state promised to pay the outstanding 15% to make up the 30% mobilization fee in 4 weeks; it took them another 7 months to pay up the remaining mobilization sum, my partners LIMONTA finished manufacturing all our goods in 2 weeks from the date I received the first half of the 30% mobilization fee.

    By the time they finished paying the 30% mobilization our materials in 9’’ 40 feet high cube containers had incurred demurrage because my partners LIMONTA Sports had no space in the factory for 9’’ 40 feet high cube containers for almost 9 months. The manufacturers had no choice but to move the containers containing Benue State material (9’’ 40 feet containers) to a bonded warEhouse in Italy at a cost of 300 Euros per container per day, I received an email from my manufactures regarding this overdue collection issue and I copied the Benue State Ministry of Sports. In September 2011, the notice of the accumulating demurrage was ignored by the Benue State Ministry of Sports by the time state government eventually paid me N150million from N175 million, it was impossible for us to collect our goods from our manufacturers because we had incurred huge storage charges, because part of the N150 million was used for the construction and back filling of the excavated pitch but I was able to convince my manufacturers to allow me collect 6 out of the 9 containers and promised to pick up the remaining three containers in 10 days. I received another e-mail from my manufacturers about the demurrage changes of the remaining 3 containers again and I also copied the Benue State Ministry of Sport of the new development. The six containers were shipped, cleared and delivered to Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi. I now approached the Benue State Government about the adverse effect of their epileptic mode of payment and not keeping to payment agreements. At this point I had no choice but to put in a variation on the project.

    I submitted my variation application in May 2012 and it was approved on 10th of July 2012, it now took Benue State Government another two months to disburse the first payment ofN67m (Sept 2012) from our N110m variation even though his Excellency instructed them to pay the full amount in order to speed up the job.

    The sixty seven million Naira was utilized to pay up our outstanding demurrage shipping, clearing and transportation of the containers to Markurdi and back filling of our excavated top soil from the pitch. Aper Aku Stadium has a stone base sub base system and it’s going to be the only pitch that has 4 drainage systems in Nigeria after completion, working on a pitch that has an already installed drainage system is more expensive than constructing an entirely new drainage system. The Aper Aku pitch after excavation, we now realized the depth before we got to their existing drainage system was almost 56cm to 64cm deep. The standard depth of a stone base sub base for a FIFA 2 star Astro turf pitch is 15cm deep. The whole pitch had to be back filled with clean dust free quarry stones to allow free flow of storm water. After our quantity surveyor took measurement and gave us the required quantity of stones required to fill the pitch, it was almost 5900 tons of quarry stones. In Benue State it is almost impossible to get a 30 ton dump truck but anyway 5,900 tons divided by 30 = 196 trips multiplied by N230,000 per trip = 45,080000. Our indigenous suppliers would supply us 18tons and claim it to be 30 tons; we managed to cover almost every part of the pitch with a very small area left. And we have also taken our slopes in readiness to start installing our shock drain system and grass, so I just don’t understand where this abandonment stories are coming from.

     

    So how long does it take your company to install an astro turf pitch?

    Our Astro Turf materials are very unique. It’s the FERRARI of Astro Turf because it’s the only Astro Turf in the world today that is 95% close to natural turf that gives 100% similar characteristics like natural turf in terms of foot stability, ball behavior and platter pressure shock absorption and temperature. Our Astro Turf pitches are also the only pitches in the world that has the coconut fibre and cork infill which does not produce casogenic fumes on hot sunny day and it also does not retain heat unlike the popular Atsro Turf SBR black/Green/Brown Rubber granules infilled pitches that produces casogenic fumes and retain heat, casogenic fumes are toxic, countries like Italy and the U.S.A has ban the use of black, green, brown rubber granule’s infilled pitches because of its adverse health risk to the athletes,it takes MONIMICHELLE only 13 weeks to complete an installation if we get paid as at when due.

     

    What efforts did you make informing the Benue state government of problems that have slowed the pace of work at the Aper Aku Stadium?.

    We wrote numerous letters to the ministry of sports, we even gave them our completion schedule in December 2012, because as at October 2012 the state government had paid us 70% of our variation amount remaining N25,309,052 and we were working towards the completion of the project because of the constant payment default by the Benue State Government we had no option but to request for our outstanding balance less retention to be paid into our advance payment guarantee bond account with our bankers. We were on site working while numerous letters were being sent to the ministry for the outstanding balance to be paid; we even worked through X-mas and New Year in 2012/2013 just to meet our scheduled completion date because we have every single material on ground to complete the job. By January it was obvious the Benue state civil servants had their own game plan on the project. His Excellency Gabriel Suswan wanted the project completed as soon as possible but the civil servants were not interested in the project but their own interest. For me it’s no problem so long as it would not de stabilize what is required to complete my job because I am not an opportunist contractor. This is my career, and I recall a particular high profile civil servant, a lady in the Benue State Ministry of Sports that control payments made a very unreasonable verbal request from me and when I told her it was impossible because I have a job to complete, she got angry and told me, so long as she is in charge of payment in the ministry she will make sure I go on my knees to accept her demand and she does not care about the governor’s directives. Then I thought it was just an empty threat it just dawn on me that she must be a very powerful woman in the Suswan Administration.

    My people, in five years on this project I have worked with seven different Commissioners, four different Permanent Secretaries, two different Directors of Sports, if am not physically present my file will not be processed for payment even after the governor’s directive for us to be paid, I have visited Benue State over 164 times in the past five years.

    In January 2013 we were invited by the Benue State House Committee on Sports to resolve this issue, the Committee members visited our site, saw all materials for the job were on ground, saw the amount of subbase construction that has been done by Monimichelle and advice the Benue State Government to pay us up. Till now we are still waiting for payment. It’s almost a year now; I attended that house committee meeting with a reporter from The Nation as my witness. Those also present at the house committee meeting were the Hon. Commissioner of Sports, Permanent Secretary of the Sports Ministry, the Commission of Works and Housing and his Permanent Secretary, the chairman House Committee on Sports Benue State and all his members and the media.

     

    So is His Excellency aware of this development?

    Of course because I always update him via text messages at times we talk on the phone. Sadly enough when Lobi Stars F.C. were preparing for their CAF Confederations Cup games, I was virtually on my knees begging the Benue state government to complete the Aper Aku Stadium so that the Benue people can see their dearly team play in Makurdi and also for the state government to project Benue to the world and reap the benefit of sports tourism.

    The governor was interested, and ready to complete but the civil servants again preferred to move the game to Bauchi. Instead of completing their home ground with N25million before Lobi Stars first game, there was a newspaper publication that there was an application from the Benue State Ministry of Sports requesting for 100 million naira for the renovation of Bauchi Stadium for Lobi Stars game. I totally was so disappointed because Aper Aku Stadium is good to host any team in the world once the turf was completed, I have seen CAF games played on worst stadiums than Aper Aku Stadium, again Benue State Ministry of sports civil servants put their interest against the interest of the Benue people. Only God knows how much money was eventually released for the renovation of Bauchi Stadium, am very sure it is far above the amount required (N25m) to complete Aper Aku pitch.

    In March 2013 I brought in my certified installed from Italy to the Aper Aku Stadium site to commence installation because the Benue State Government promised to pay us N10 million part payment once we commenced installation and the balance once we complete , the Benue State Goverment defaulted again. My specialist installers came in from Italy and each person cost me 2,400 Euros per day, we were in Makurdi for over 14 days all our request for the balance to be paid in order to enable us finish the job was ignored by the Benue State Ministry of Sports.

     

    Now that you have said your own side of the story, so what is the way forward?

    Monimichele is not an opportunist contractor, I have spent 28 years of my life in the sports Industry, 18 years as a FIFA licenced football agent and eight years in sports facilities construction. We’ll be very delighted to complete the project. But as it stands a publication with my personal telephone number credited to the new commissioner of sports has placed my life in danger because I have been receiving nonstop death threats from anonymous numbers, what is left for us at the site to complete the job is less than 5% work and installation. Once our outstanding balance is paid into our APG bond account with Zenith Bank and my life and that of my installers are fully guaranteed by placing security personnel on the job site and at my hotel, well then prepare our job completion schedule and commence work. What has taken the Benue state Goverment five years to complete only took Katsina State Goverment 10 weeks to complete. The Katsina State Ultra Modern Karkander Stadium FIFA 2 Star coconuts fiber and cork infill pitch with the latest shock absorption system is ready at a record time of 10 weeks, His Excellency Gabriel Suswan choice of the Ferrari of Astro turf is because he is a Governor with style and he wants the best of the best in the world for the Benue People. If you want to drive a Ferrari, you pay the Ferrari price. The Benue State Ministry of sports civil servants are not in line with His Excellency developmental plan to revamp sports facilities in Benue state to world standard.

     

    Thanks so much Ebi.

    The pleasure is mine as I believe in objective and balanced reporting.