The House of Representatives has mandated its committee on Sports to interface with the federal government to ascertain the conditions and criteria of transfer of the National Stadium to Lagos state government
The decision was sequel upon a motion sponsored by Hon. Danburam Abubakar Nuhu (APC, Kano),who recalled that over the years, the stadium was practically abandoned, leading to the dilapidation of the facilities.
He said it took the intervention of the National Sports Commission (NSC) Â in 2009 to renovate and upgrade the facilities to a world class stadium, saying that the National Stadium was first stadium built by the federal government in 1972 to host the All African Games in 1973.
He observed that to keep up with the maintenance of the stadium, a huge budgetary provision is made annually and in 2016, for instance the sum of N400 million was appropriated for the purpose.
He also informed that the federal ministry of youth and sports is at an advanced stage of entering into an agreement with Lagos State Government to take over the stadium; adding that there is a need to ensure that favourble terms and conditions are provided before the transfer of the stadium to Lagos state government.
Supporting the motion, Hon. Herman Hembe (APC, Benue) noted that the National Stadium should be a place of pride for all Nigerians hence they deserve to know the conditions under which it would be given out to a state.
Hon. Agbo Dennis (PDP, Enugu) noted that the stadium is a national asset and should not be dashed to a state. He asked whether the minister of youth and sports had consulted widely before taken the decision insisting that the modalities, procedure and criteria for its lease must be made public.
Minority leader, Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta), while supporting the motion said it has been established that in the last five years, huge sums of money had been appropriated for edifice and for anyone to decide to lease it out, the public should be made to know.
Hon. Sopuluchukwu Ezeonwuka (PDP, Anambra) said it would be wrong to transfer a national asset to a state government without making public the details of the transaction arguing that there are many federal projects scattered across the states and it will amount to setting a dangerous precedence if due process is not followed.
Hon.Agunsoye Oluwarotimi (APC-Lago) who also opposed the motion said the other national stadiums that were transfered would also be subject to investigation if the House insist on investigating the transfer of the national stadium to lagos state government.
"Why are we worried about the transfer of the national stadium to Lagos state government when that of Calabar, Enugu and Kaduna was done without such criteria. If that is the case we should go back and investigate those ones", he said.
But kicking against the motion, Hon.
James Faleke (APC, Lagos) argued that there was nothing to investigate yet about the National Stadium concerning Lagos state since the takeover was just a proposal.
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Similarly, Hon. Sunday Adepoju (APC, Oyo) reasoned that the mentioned was well-intentioned but morally, it would be wrong to leave the National Stadium to continually dilapidate if Lagos state was ready to take over the maintenance.
Hon. Egho Emma Ogene (PDP, Lagos) commended the Lagos state government for the initiative and instead pleaded with the lawmakers to support the move by the sports ministry to give out the stadium maintaining that it was a viable project that should not be allowed to waste away.
Due to the hot debate that trailed the motion, a middle course was eventually adopted to interface with the ministry instead of investigating the process of handing over.
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