National Stadium In Lagos To Be Ready For Use May 2021 – Minister of Sports

  National Stadium In Lagos To Be Ready For Use May 2021 – Minister of Sports By Editor The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, said the National Stadium pitch in Surulere, Lagos, will be ready for use as from May 2021. Speaking in Lagos on Friday, 18 December, 2020, Dare noted that the contractors handling renovation of the pitch and tracks had assured the ministry of early completion of the renovation works on the main bowl pitch and tracks as scheduled. He said: “This arrangement is under the adoption initiative which is a public-private model that we developed. We were able to pitch that as a ministry and government to the private sector and we found a philanthropist and lover of sport, Sir Adebutu Keshington, who was convinced about the proposal. He’s somebody that has the youth of this country at heart and he has done so much to support youth sport development. “By extension, we also want to thank Alhaji Aliko Dongote of Dangote Group by providing similar fund for the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, which should be ready hopefully by March and have our national team play there.” Dare assured that a maintenance template is on ground to ensure that the facility does not go back to its original state. “The ministry has department of facility and it is building a template for maintenance of the stadium. We have facility manager from the private sector that will work with our department of facility. Maintaining this is critical and we are going to take it very serious.” National Stadium Surulere, Lagos, was used mostly for football matches until 2004. Before, 2004, it served as the home ground for Nigerian national teams and hosted several international competitions including the 1980 African Cup of Nations final, the 2000 African Cup of Nations final, and FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. It also served as the main stadium for the 1973 All-Africa Games.