Governor Udom
Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State is giving out the sum of $40,000.00 (N14
million based on the exchange rate of N350 to $1) to the Nigerian senior
national football team, the Super Eagles, for defeating their
Cameroonian counterpart, the Indomitable Lions, at the Godswill Akpabio
International Stadium in Uyo on Friday September 1, 2017, in
fulfillment of his ostensibly impulsive promise to donate $10,000 to the
team for every goal scored.
If it is necessary to donate
public funds to players, who have already made it in life materially,
before they can win a match at home, then what is the cacophony about?
Ironically,
two years after the state government owned Akwa United Football Club
won the 2015 FA Cup, Governor Udom Emmanuel is yet to fulfill his
promise to give each of the 34 registered players of the local club N2
million and a house.
I do not like sports. However, anytime
that the Super Eagles play, I devote considerable time to watching their
match, if circumstances allow me to do so.
Like every patriot, I
am delighted that Nigeria won. What I will not concede to, is the
argument that because of Friday’s victory by our national team, I, as an
active and responsible citizen, should not interrogate the economic
value of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium to Akwa Ibom State.
The
Godswill Akpabio administration awarded an estimated and whopping
$250,000,000.00 (Two hundred and fifty million dollars) contract for the
construction of the stadium in 2012 to Julius Berger Plc. The project
was slated to be completed in 2014.
It was designed to
be a 30,000 seater ultra modern MULTI-PURPOSE sports complex, modelled
after Allianz Arena, a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany,
with a 75,000 seating capacity.
Apart from the football pitch, a
400 metre running track for athletic events and other sporting
facilities were supposed to be part of the structure.
Today,
people seem to have forgotten the outrageous amount of money that was
thrown into the construction of the stadium. I also wonder why those who
constantly admonish me to be “a constructive critic”, have not asked
questions about the whereabouts of the athletic and other components of
the stadium?
Why is the stadium SINGLE-PURPOSE (solely for soccer) and not multi-purpose as specified in the contract for its construction?
Why
are we reticent about the fact that nearly Seven years after Senator
Akpabio awarded the scandalously inflated contract for the stadium to
Julius Berger Plc, the project, like most of Akpabio’s other white
elephant projects (like the Tropicana Entertainment Centre, Four-Point
Sheraton Hotel, etc) remains uncompleted?
Where is the 250
million dollars, which if it had been properly invested, could have
yielded 31 industries across the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom
State (which Akpabio promised, budgeted funds for, but NEVER built)?
The stadium, we were told, was going to boost the internally generated revenue of Akwa Ibom State.
Today,
I am publicly challenging anyone who feels that the Godswill Akpabio
International Stadium has economic value to Akwa Ibom State, to tell us
how much, in figures, has been generated by the state government between
2014 when it was commissioned to date?
What we clearly see
is that rather than generate revenue for the state, the Godswill Akpabio
International Stadium has become a liability. It is a drain on the
resources of Akwa Ibom State.
If emotional satisfaction and not
profits is all that we derived from having “an International stadium”,
it means there is a problem. Akwa Ibom State Government spends
money to lobby the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) in order for
matches to be brought to the stadium. The state government also gives
out money to players to “motivate” them during matches. It is evident
that funds also go into certain logistics each time a match is to be
played at the stadium.
How much has the state derived so far
from sales of tickets? Investment without returns is useless. Football
is business. That is why Alhaji Aliko Dangote is reportedly looking into
the prospects of buying Arsenal football club.
The money that
goes into the private sector from visiting spectators who lodged in
hotels and patronised goods and services in Akwa Ibom State each time an
international or local match is taken to the stadium, will never
justify the huge amount of money dissipated by the state government on
the construction of the stadium and hosting of matches.
A
vast majority of the people who go to the stadium to watch matches are
residents of Akwa Ibom State who have no need of securing hotel
accommodation.
In the final analysis, we will all see that an
International stadium (uncompleted), is not a priority for a civil
service state like Akwa Ibom, where government is the largest employer
of labour.
The stadium is an unproductive legacy of squandermania. It is a white elephant project that was used to siphon money.
While
basking in the euphoria of Friday’s victorious outing of the Super
Eagles at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, let us bear
in mind that the stadium is owned by a state in Nigeria where
pensioners and retirees are dying without receiving their gratuity and
pensions. Do not forget that in that same Akwa Ibom, the next-of-kin
of late primary school teachers, between 1991 to date, have not received
their entitlements.
It is in that same Akwa Ibom State that
Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ recently terminated its contract with the
government to manage the state-owned Five-Star Hotel, Le Meridien Hotel
& Golf Resort, over a debt of N394 million owed the international
hotel services company by the government.
In counting areas
where the Akwa Ibom State Government has FAILED in its responsibilities
and financial obligations, the list is endless.
If the $250
million had been invested wisely in education, job creation or mass
housing in Akwa Ibom State in 2012, it would have had tremendous
generational impacts on the citizens of the oil-rich but impoverished
state.
Tragically, the then profligate governor played to the
gallery and dissipated such huge but scarce resources on a needless
stadium project which remains uncompleted and economically unproductive.
May
Nigeria not be destroyed by the crass misadventures of morally
deficient, financially reckless and intellectually bankrupt leaders who
would rather mortgage the future of the citizens than invest sensibly in
productive ventures, in their outrageous and insatiable propensity for
vainglory.
Inibehe Effiong, a legal practitioner and the convener
of the Akwa Ibom Conscience, can be reached
via: inibehe.effiong@gmail.com
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