Reps worry over Nigeria’s World Cup preparations
Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Sports yesterday expressed concerns over Nigeria’s preparations toward the World Cup coming up in Russia in June this year.
The lawmakers said it appears Nigerian authorities are not taking preparations for the tournament seriously, saying the level of preparations so far “fell short of expectations.”
At a budget defence session with the Minister of Sports and Youth Development in Abuja, the chairman of the committee, Rep Goni Bukar Lawan (APC, Yobe), said the committee would engage every stakeholder in an attempt to make Nigeria’s outing at the World Cup successful.
Expressing dismay over the level of preparations so far, the chairman of the panel’s technical committee, Rep Abubakar Nuhu Danburam (APC, Kano) said “Your presentation, to me, fell short of our expectations with regards to our preparation for World Cup.
“Based on your presentation, there seems not to be budget for World Cup whereas this is the year for the tournament. I don’t want to see an issue where the preparations will be a problem. This is an issue of concern to all of us here.
“Secondly, on the issue of friendlies, I do understand that the last friendly will be played in Abuja. How prepared are we because the Abuja stadium is still under construction?,” Danburam said.
Also, a member of the committee, Rep Ayo Omidiran (APC, Osun) said the budgets of the 28 sporting federations in the country were not efficient.
“I remember when they came for defence, they couldn’t make anything because there were no details. I want to know if NFF prepared this budget,” she said.
Dalung had earlier made a brief presentation where he told the lawmakers that in the 2017 budget, the ministry awarded 17 contracts for mini-sports centres, mini-stadiums, among others at the cost of N2.22 billion.
He said the ministry generated N36.7 million as internally generated revenue in 2017 and that they hoped to get more this year.
“We have also successfully democratized the national federations. Before now, the minister had powers to nominate five members to the board of each federation. One of the sacrifices I made was to make the office of over 100 persons democratized,” he said.
Members of the committee began asking questions as regards the budget and the World Cup preparations when a lawmaker moved that the budget defence be stepped down for the lawmakers to study the budget documents properly.
All the lawmakers, except Danburam, supported the motion. A new date would be fixed for the minister to appear and defend the budget.