Jos stadium shows prospects, 24 years after
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- Category: Around and about
- Written by Onimisi Alao, Jos
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Retired Col. Lawrence Onoja, who was the military governor of Plateau State between 1986 and ’88, had the vision to build for the people a stadium they would cherish. He awarded, in 1988, a contract for the construction of an Olympic-size stadium, estimated at N30m, out of which he paid N10 million as mobilisation fee. But he was posted out of Plateau State almost immediately afterwards, so he had no time to go far with the project.
Stadium in limboAnother colonel, Aliyu Kama, who assumed office as Plateau’s next military administrator, evidently did not share Onoja’s vision. Choosing not to continue the new stadium project along the Zaria Road area of Jos, now named Goodluck Jonathan Way, Kama reached for the existing Rwang Pam Stadium in densely populated Jos city centre and reconstructed it.
Little was done on the new stadium project by the successive governors. In-between Aliu Kama who governed from July 1988 to August 1990 and Joshua Dariye who was governor between 1999 and 2007 were five governors. The five, in power for an average of two years, included Joshua Madaki who lasted from August 1990 to January 1992. Fidelis Tapgun was the military governor between January 1992 and November 1993. Tapgun handed over power to Mohammed Mana who governed the state up to August 1996. Habibu Shuaibu took over from Mana and was the governor up to August 1998. Musa Shehu then took the reins and terminated military rule in the state in May 1999.
The short spans of the administrations of these governors, someone has contended, would be a reason why the capital intensive project dragged or made no movement at all during their periods.
Between Dariye & Jang
Chief Joshua Dariye took over from Musa Shehu in May 1999. Apparently determined to complete the stadium project, Dariye re-awarded it at N1.2 billion to Trans Project Nigeria Limited which made some motions but got the stadium nowhere before dropping it entirely.
Dariye made efforts on his second coming in 2003 to sell the idea of taking over the project to the Federal Government. The Federal Government, sadly for all who wished to see a completed new stadium, refused to play ball.
Governor Jonah Jang took over from Dariye in 2007 and with Jang has come much enthusiasm towards completing the stadium project. Jang not only set out to try and complete the project, he redesigned it, raising its profile several steps.
Fresh moves, new heights
Part of Jang’s comprehensive design review has expanding the stadium’s seating capacity from the original 20, 000 to 44,000 spectators.
The cost profile has naturally also risen. It is now to guzzle N3.2 billion.
Jang said in April that the sum of N926million had been released to the contractor as mobilisation fee and a substantial sum earmarked in the 2012 budget.
“Governor Jang was very enthusiastic about the project and has earmarked another N1.5b in the state’s 2012 budget for its completion,” Managing Director of BCC-Tropical Nigeria Ltd, Mr Plamen Iliev, confirmed. BCC-Tropical is the contracting firm now handling the project.
Facilities being built include a football pitch of artificial turf, athletics turf, four dressing rooms, four media halls, four restaurants, 11 fast food halls, an indoor games hall, a state box, and two press galleries.
Jang wants a stadium that would be best in Nigeria and meet FIFA standards. He said so in April when he paid an inspection visit to the site.
“The adjustments that FIFA recommended, we are carrying them out to ensure that this stadium meets FIFA standards and can be compared to any stadium anywhere in the world. I wish you could understand the joy that is in me seeing this stadium getting into the completion stage,” the governor said.
Expressing his joy further, Jonah Jang said, “I want to tell you that today I am filled with joy that this stadium, at last, with the facilities that have been added, is taking this impressive shape. You heard the site head engineer of the stadium complex, Mr. Robert Bob Parkinson, say that this stadium is even going to be superior to the National Stadium in Abuja and will have far more facilities than the National Stadium. So, Plateau will once again attract all activities in the arena of sports.”
The stadium has been a FIFA-monitored project. FIFA Technical Adviser on Facilities, Mr. Heinz Marotzke, who visited earlier in the year, April 25, expressed satisfaction with the quality of work on the stadium, a stadium which hes said would set new standards when completed.
Governor Jang was even more enthusiastic when he visited the site for inspection in June. He told journalists that the work he saw at the site accorded with FIFA recommendations.
Finishing line
As at Friday, September 21, when Weekly Trust visited the stadium complex, much work was going on road network and where the seats will be in the main bowl. But there was still little in the surroundings of the stadium complex to indicate the quantum of work that has been done on the overall design of the stadium. It is when you enter and behold the main bowl that you would see evidences of the making of a dream into reality.
The main bowl has reached far, with luxuriant synthetic grass fully laid on the pitch and duly marked red athletics tracks equally concluded and work progressing on other main bowl facilities.
Governor Jang vowed during his June project tour to the site that 2013 would be the limit. “From what I have seen and given our commitment to the project and assurances of the contractors, the stadium will be ready for use before the end of next year,” the governor told newsmen who covered the facility tour.
Daily Trust reported at the time, June 22, 2012, that lush synthetic grass and colourful athletics turf already graced the stadium but noted that much work still remained to be done ‘in the endeavour to have in Jos an alternative to the Rwang Pam Stadium.’
Not a few accept that the Rwang Pam Stadium, located in the heart of Jos right in the midst of a teaming neighbourhood and of just 15,000 seating capacity, needs an alternative in Jos, a city with a rich history of sporting activities and home to popular football league teams, among them Plateau United FC, JUTH FC, Giwa FC, and until very recently, Mighty Jets of Jos, now an amateur division team. The Rwang Pam Stadium is currently the sole home stadium of those teams.
2014 National Sports Festival
Jang wishes to present the new stadium being constructed as bait for the 2014 national sports festival. He said on an occasion: “We are bequeathing to the state a lasting legacy as one of the foremost sporting states in the country. If you remember that most of the football stars in Nigeria, both living, and dead, cut their teeth in Jos. And of course with our clement weather, Plateau cannot afford to lag behind in sporting activities. That is why we are trying to finish the project in time to boost our chances if we eventually bid for the 2014 National Sports Festival.”
The state Commissioner for Sports Development, James Yakubu has repeatedly asserted that the government is determined to break the jinx over finishing the project. The stadium project, he said, had become an embarrassment to Plateau State.
The commissioner said last week in an interview with Weekly Trust: “We are ready and we are planning to host the 2014 National Sports Festival. So, we are targeting to complete the project before or by the 2014 national sports festival.”
Yakubu said the project is being well funded, asserting, “Money is being released. We have no problem with funding.”
The Project Manager of BCC Tropical Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Robert (Bob) Parkinson, agreed that the project is being funded and that if funding continues uninterrupted, his firm would have no problem delivering the project by the 2014 National Sports Festival target.
“Many facilities are ready and if you want to play football here tomorrow and the government gives you a go-ahead, the pitch is ready for you,” Bob, as the project manager is fondly called, told Weekly Trust during a brief sightseeing at the stadium complex.
Articles
Jos stadium shows prospects, 24 years after
Category: Around and about Written by Onimisi Alao, Jos Hits: 744
Retired Col. Lawrence Onoja, who was the military governor of Plateau State between 1986 and ’88, had the vision to build for the people a stadium they would cherish. He awarded, in 1988, a contract for the construction of an Olympic-size stadium, estimated at N30m, out of which he paid N10 million as mobilisation fee. But he was posted out of Plateau State almost immediately afterwards, so he had no time to go far with the project.
Stadium in limboAnother colonel, Aliyu Kama, who assumed office as Plateau’s next military administrator, evidently did not share Onoja’s vision. Choosing not to continue the new stadium project along the Zaria Road area of Jos, now named Goodluck Jonathan Way, Kama reached for the existing Rwang Pam Stadium in densely populated Jos city centre and reconstructed it.
Little was done on the new stadium project by the successive governors. In-between Aliu Kama who governed from July 1988 to August 1990 and Joshua Dariye who was governor between 1999 and 2007 were five governors. The five, in power for an average of two years, included Joshua Madaki who lasted from August 1990 to January 1992. Fidelis Tapgun was the military governor between January 1992 and November 1993. Tapgun handed over power to Mohammed Mana who governed the state up to August 1996. Habibu Shuaibu took over from Mana and was the governor up to August 1998. Musa Shehu then took the reins and terminated military rule in the state in May 1999.
The short spans of the administrations of these governors, someone has contended, would be a reason why the capital intensive project dragged or made no movement at all during their periods.
Between Dariye & Jang
Chief Joshua Dariye took over from Musa Shehu in May 1999. Apparently determined to complete the stadium project, Dariye re-awarded it at N1.2 billion to Trans Project Nigeria Limited which made some motions but got the stadium nowhere before dropping it entirely.
Dariye made efforts on his second coming in 2003 to sell the idea of taking over the project to the Federal Government. The Federal Government, sadly for all who wished to see a completed new stadium, refused to play ball.
Governor Jonah Jang took over from Dariye in 2007 and with Jang has come much enthusiasm towards completing the stadium project. Jang not only set out to try and complete the project, he redesigned it, raising its profile several steps.
Fresh moves, new heights
Part of Jang’s comprehensive design review has expanding the stadium’s seating capacity from the original 20, 000 to 44,000 spectators.
The cost profile has naturally also risen. It is now to guzzle N3.2 billion.
Jang said in April that the sum of N926million had been released to the contractor as mobilisation fee and a substantial sum earmarked in the 2012 budget.
“Governor Jang was very enthusiastic about the project and has earmarked another N1.5b in the state’s 2012 budget for its completion,” Managing Director of BCC-Tropical Nigeria Ltd, Mr Plamen Iliev, confirmed. BCC-Tropical is the contracting firm now handling the project.
Facilities being built include a football pitch of artificial turf, athletics turf, four dressing rooms, four media halls, four restaurants, 11 fast food halls, an indoor games hall, a state box, and two press galleries.
Jang wants a stadium that would be best in Nigeria and meet FIFA standards. He said so in April when he paid an inspection visit to the site.
“The adjustments that FIFA recommended, we are carrying them out to ensure that this stadium meets FIFA standards and can be compared to any stadium anywhere in the world. I wish you could understand the joy that is in me seeing this stadium getting into the completion stage,” the governor said.
Expressing his joy further, Jonah Jang said, “I want to tell you that today I am filled with joy that this stadium, at last, with the facilities that have been added, is taking this impressive shape. You heard the site head engineer of the stadium complex, Mr. Robert Bob Parkinson, say that this stadium is even going to be superior to the National Stadium in Abuja and will have far more facilities than the National Stadium. So, Plateau will once again attract all activities in the arena of sports.”
The stadium has been a FIFA-monitored project. FIFA Technical Adviser on Facilities, Mr. Heinz Marotzke, who visited earlier in the year, April 25, expressed satisfaction with the quality of work on the stadium, a stadium which hes said would set new standards when completed.
Governor Jang was even more enthusiastic when he visited the site for inspection in June. He told journalists that the work he saw at the site accorded with FIFA recommendations.
Finishing line
As at Friday, September 21, when Weekly Trust visited the stadium complex, much work was going on road network and where the seats will be in the main bowl. But there was still little in the surroundings of the stadium complex to indicate the quantum of work that has been done on the overall design of the stadium. It is when you enter and behold the main bowl that you would see evidences of the making of a dream into reality.
The main bowl has reached far, with luxuriant synthetic grass fully laid on the pitch and duly marked red athletics tracks equally concluded and work progressing on other main bowl facilities.
Governor Jang vowed during his June project tour to the site that 2013 would be the limit. “From what I have seen and given our commitment to the project and assurances of the contractors, the stadium will be ready for use before the end of next year,” the governor told newsmen who covered the facility tour.
Daily Trust reported at the time, June 22, 2012, that lush synthetic grass and colourful athletics turf already graced the stadium but noted that much work still remained to be done ‘in the endeavour to have in Jos an alternative to the Rwang Pam Stadium.’
Not a few accept that the Rwang Pam Stadium, located in the heart of Jos right in the midst of a teaming neighbourhood and of just 15,000 seating capacity, needs an alternative in Jos, a city with a rich history of sporting activities and home to popular football league teams, among them Plateau United FC, JUTH FC, Giwa FC, and until very recently, Mighty Jets of Jos, now an amateur division team. The Rwang Pam Stadium is currently the sole home stadium of those teams.
2014 National Sports Festival
Jang wishes to present the new stadium being constructed as bait for the 2014 national sports festival. He said on an occasion: “We are bequeathing to the state a lasting legacy as one of the foremost sporting states in the country. If you remember that most of the football stars in Nigeria, both living, and dead, cut their teeth in Jos. And of course with our clement weather, Plateau cannot afford to lag behind in sporting activities. That is why we are trying to finish the project in time to boost our chances if we eventually bid for the 2014 National Sports Festival.”
The state Commissioner for Sports Development, James Yakubu has repeatedly asserted that the government is determined to break the jinx over finishing the project. The stadium project, he said, had become an embarrassment to Plateau State.
The commissioner said last week in an interview with Weekly Trust: “We are ready and we are planning to host the 2014 National Sports Festival. So, we are targeting to complete the project before or by the 2014 national sports festival.”
Yakubu said the project is being well funded, asserting, “Money is being released. We have no problem with funding.”
The Project Manager of BCC Tropical Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Robert (Bob) Parkinson, agreed that the project is being funded and that if funding continues uninterrupted, his firm would have no problem delivering the project by the 2014 National Sports Festival target.
“Many facilities are ready and if you want to play football here tomorrow and the government gives you a go-ahead, the pitch is ready for you,” Bob, as the project manager is fondly called, told Weekly Trust during a brief sightseeing at the stadium complex.