Pix: PDP rally in Makurdi
By George Aluo
When two Elephants fight, the grass they say, suffers! This saying was confirmed during the just concluded Nigerian general elections when the APC and PDP (forget the other so called 71 other political parties) went to electoral war.
One man that is still writhing in pains over the fact that the grass actually suffered in the hand of our politicians, no thanks to political rallies, is the Chief Executive Officer of Monimichelle, Ebi Egbe.
Egbe in an exclusive interview granted The Nigerian Xpress Sports said he shed tears while watching how the multi million naira turfs he constructed in Aba, Katsina and Makurdi were misused during rallies organized by political parties.
He said moving forward both the federal and state governments should ban the use of Stadiums for political rallies and other such religious and social activities, insisting that football pitches that cost millions of naira to construct are destroyed when the stadiums are used wrongly.
Hear him: “The turf of the Enyimba Stadium in Aba is one of the best in the world. It is a geotech turf that shouldn’t be used for any other purpose but football. People that are not wearing soccer boots are not supposed to step on the turf not to talk of cars plying on it. Unfortunately during the political rallies we witnessed before the elections armored vehicles were driven right into the pitch and the vehicles parked on the turf for hours. That amounts to destroying the turf. The story of what happened in Aba was not different from what happened in Makurdi and Katsina and the other stadiums in the country. We must learn to maintain what we have, especially when it costs millions to put such facilities in place.”
Pix: APC rally inside the Enyimba Stadium, Aba
Continuing Egbe said: “My appeal to government, both at state and federal levels is to stop using our stadiums for non sporting events. In fact it should be banned outrightly. Political, religious and other social events should hold in places like Eagles Square in Abuja and other such venues in the state capitals.”
Egbe pointed out that it would be unthinkable for a political rally to hold in any of the stadiums that host league matches in Europe and other parts of the developed world.
“In fact the groundsmen in any of the top clubs in Europe won’t even allow anybody who is not a player to step unto their pitch. So, why must we do things differently in our country and expect result?”, Egbe queried.
Egbe stated that the mission of his sports construction outfit, Monimichelle, is to eradicate bad pitches not just in Nigeria but the African continent.
“The biggest problem facing Nigerian and African football is that of the poor playing surfaces. Our vision in Monimichelle is to solve that problem. We have the technology and expertise to do that. The job we did in Aba, the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa and other places are there for everybody to see. We are ready to do more and we are ready to partner both the federal and state governments in this direction. As I have always said, Monimichelle can fix both the Abuja and Lagos National Stadiums in three month. That way, the Super Eagles problem of having a permanent home can be solved. It is a shame that our national team keep moving round the country simply because there are no good turfs for them to play both in Abuja and Lagos.”
