{"id":21628,"date":"2020-06-17T10:29:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628"},"modified":"2020-06-17T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:29:08","slug":"abiola-stadium-pitch-and-floodlights-left-to-fix-dare-calls-for-patience-from-nigerians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628","title":{"rendered":"ABIOLA STADIUM: \u2018Pitch and floodlights left to fix\u2019 \u2013 Dare calls for patience from Nigerians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/www.ripplesnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/abuja-stadium.jpg\" alt=\"BREAKING... Finally, Abiola gets national monument as Buhari renames Abuja National Stadium after him\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The rehabilitation of the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja has reached the stage where only the pitch and the floodlights are yet to be fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was according to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, who has called on Nigerians to be patient as the ministry continues to work to fulfill its promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Stadium Abuja had been in a state the country\u2019s sports stakeholders were not proud of, and there had been calls for the government to restore the glory of the edifice that was commissioned in 2003 for the All African Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On June, 2020, a day set aside to celebrate democracy on Nigeria, in honour of late Chief MKO Abiola, the Sports Ministry led the unveiling of the Stadium, and has since given it a new look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But speaking with journalists during a recent tour of the facility, Dare said about $1.5m would be needed to complete the renovation, with Billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, partnering with the ministry to get it done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt will cost almost $1.5m private funds to fix the stadium and there are processes in handling such a project,\u201d Dare said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are in the final stage in which the contractor will be mobilised to site, so I\u2019m calling on Nigerians to be patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are carrying out all the necessary procedures before we move to the site, so the pitch will come back very soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can see that the stadium is functional. I will say 75 to 80 per cent functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe swimming pool is working, the indoor sports hall is working, 60,000 seats in the stadium are FIFA compliant and the tracks are okay. So, we will get there very soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is a function of when the pitch is fixed. Every other thing is working. The lights are back, security is back, water is back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat is left is just the football pitch and the floodlights,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Minister, who assumed office in August 2019 after being appointed to replace Barr. Solomon Dalung, had made it clear how development of sporting infrastructures was one of his key missions this tenure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rehabilitation of the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja has reached the stage where only the pitch and the floodlights are yet to be fixed. This was according to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, who has called on Nigerians to be patient as the ministry continues to work to fulfill its promises. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ABIOLA STADIUM: \u2018Pitch and floodlights left to fix\u2019 \u2013 Dare calls for patience from Nigerians &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"ABIOLA STADIUM: \u2018Pitch and floodlights left to fix\u2019 \u2013 Dare calls for patience from Nigerians\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ABIOLA STADIUM: \u2018Pitch and floodlights left to fix\u2019 \u2013 Dare calls for patience from Nigerians &raquo; WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=21628#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"ABIOLA STADIUM: \u2018Pitch and floodlights left to fix\u2019 \u2013 Dare calls for patience from Nigerians"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Sports<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The rehabilitation of the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja has reached the stage where only the pitch and the floodlights are yet to be fixed. This was according to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, who has called on Nigerians to be patient as the ministry continues to work to fulfill its promises. The&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21628"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}