- Federation shops for N175.9m to renovate unused structure
- Stakeholders call for probe; say it’s monumental corruption
- We’re in no hurry to occupy building – NFF
Almost four years after it was completed and commissioned, the Sunday Dankaro House, a N350 million edifice built for the Nigerian Football Federation at the Abuja National Stadium, stands abandoned.
The facility, which is located at the Goal Project centre of the stadium and was built with funds raised from the private sector by a presidential task force, has now become “home to reptiles and bats,” according to findings by our correspondents.
The situation has generated heated controversy among stakeholders, who have called on the Federal Government to probe the refusal of the NFF to occupy the building, noting that it was important for Government to curb the antics of those who have perfected the art of wasting public resources in a bid to feather their own nests.
During a visit to the abandoned office, midweek, a stakeholder, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, corroborated The Point’s findings, as he bemoaned the present state of the facility.
He said, “You can see that the structure is now gradually losing some of its glass boards, which once gave the complex some uniquenessin outlook. As we speak, it has lost all the removables affixed before; they are gradually making a carcass of this edifice.
“Except that the gate is padlocked, there is nothing to show that NFF remembers that it has this building. It has now become a home for reptiles and bats.”
The NFF had, for long, been holed up in its Glass House office in Zone 7, Wuse, Abuja, while it keeps picking and postponing at will, several possible dates of relocation to the property.
This is besides allegations making the rounds that some NFF members are profiting from the continued occupation of the Glass House as against moving to the Federation’s permanent and more befitting office.
In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Nigeria’s late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua had inaugurated a Presidential Task Force committee to raise funds for the country’s participation at the competition. Chaired by former Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, other members of the PTF committee were Alhaji Abba Yola, Dr. Patrick Ekeji; Segun Odegbami, John Masteroudes, former Presidential Spokeperson, Olusegun Adeniyi; Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, Larry Izamoje, Col Abdulmumini Aminu (retd), John Fashanu and Ambassador Buba Ahmed, among others.
The then President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Mallam Sani Lulu, was also appointed to represent the body before he was replaced by Aminu Maigari, his successor.
The committee swung into action, courted the private sector and succeeded in raising funds to the tune of N1billion. With the committee’s support and funding, Nigeria qualified for the tournament.
Thereafter, it assisted the NFF in its preparations for and participation in the January 2010 African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola.
Our correspondent gathered that part of the funds were deployed in hiring a foreign technical manager to prosecute the World Cup as well as in increasing the match bonus for Super Eagles players by 100 per cent throughout the entire period. However, following the conclusion of the World Cup in South Africa in July 2010, the committee still had about N350 million remaining in its account.
Dankaro House as dream project “We had several options on what to do with the money, which most committees in similar situation would have shared among members, especially since it was raised mostly from the private sector. But we decided to deploy it to build a befitting secretariat for the NFF,” Olusegun Adeniyi, a member of the committee, stated in a report on the abandoned house by NFF.
According to him, at the time, only a few people believed that the committee could build a house in Abuja, where the cost of such projects was usually in billions of naira, with N350 million.
But after a long and painstaking process, and having held several sessions with prospective contractors, the committee chose a contractor in Messrs Paul-B Nigeria Plc, which delivered the completed ‘Sunday Dankaro House.’
Adeniyi recalled, “The conditions for the contract were very stringent with an undertaking signed by the contractor that under no condition would there be price variation.
“Standing on two floors, the edifice, built on a gross floor area of 2,000 square metres, boasts of a helipad, a courtyard, a penthouse and a manicured park. The ground floor of the building has a conference room and 12 self-contained offices with associate conveniences while the first floor has 14 of such offices. It also has a big conference hall and the office of the Secretary General.”
The second floor of the office complex, which is the penthouse, accommodates the office of the NFF President with two conference halls. The complex is also said to have been fitted with a 200KVA generator, a borehole with ground and overhead tanks for 20,000 litres capacity and a parking space for 110 vehicles.
At the commissioning ceremony on July 18, 2013, former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who represented former President Goodluck Jonathan, handed the keys to the offices to the then NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari and planted a commemorative tree.
Jonathan said that the office, which was named after the first Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association, Sunday Dankaro, had made history as the first ever permanent secretariat of the NFF. He stressed that the elegant edifice would serve as a catalyst for the development of Nigeria football.
Jonathan noted that while submitting its final reports, the PTF, set up in 2009, got approval of the Federal Government to utilise the balance of the fund raised in the course of its assignment to construct a befitting football house for the NFF.
“Indeed, the significance of this project is far beyond the physical structure of football and other activities in Nigeria. This project will serve as catalyst for better football administration and greater achievement in football and I would like to charge this administration to use this project for the development of our youths, through sports,” he said.
Four years on, however, every lofty ideals that the abandoned edifice was planned to espouse are now seemingly becoming pipe dreams.
Stakeholders condemn plan to rebuild facility
More worrisome, however, are the questions now being raised by concerned stakeholders with respect to plans by the NFF to ‘renovate and rebuild’ the office complex that had never been put to use.
Our correspondent learnt that the football federation was sourcing for about N175.9 million to carry out the planned renovations.
“For pecuniary gains, the NFF leadership has continued to break and rebuild a building that was completed 100 per cent and handed-over instead of occupying it,” a source had told The Point at the Abuja Stadium.
The source called for a probe to establish why the office was yet unoccupied even after it was completed before hand-over.
When contacted, Abba Yola, who served as the head of the PTF secretariat, confirmed that he had also got wind of the current plan by the NFF leadership.
He told our correspondent that it was unbelievable that a building built with N350 million was now being planned “to be put in proper shape” at a cost of N175.9 million.
“I understand they planned to rebuild the house to their taste by employing the services of another contractor who quoted this amount of money to the NFF,” Yola said.
But this latest plan is certainly not the Federation’s first attempt at rebuilding the Dankaro House.
According to Yola, the NFF secretariat must have ignored an earlier decision of the board that the body should not give out any contract regarding the reconstruction of the edifice.
Giving fresh insight into the development, Yola disclosed that the NFF had initially, in its executive meeting of Tuesday, July 14, 2015, revoked a contract already awarded by the secretariat for the renovation and furnishing of the Sunday Dankaro House, after the NFF President, Mr Amaju Pinnick and his 2nd Vice President, Mr. Shehu Dikko visited the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Procurement, Mr. Emeka Eze.
Our correspondent learnt that the contract had earlier been awarded during an NFF Executive Committee meeting held on January 8, 2015 in Lagos.
But after Pinnick’s visit to the BPP, in company with Mr. Dikko, a certified surveyor, he and his team saw the need to conform to BPPapproved processes.
Adeniyi, on his part, lamented the fact that all kinds of requisitions were also being freshly made for some jumbo sums of money to furnish the building.
He said, “|Because such funds have not been given by the Federal Government, the NFF fat cats cannot take from their FIFA allowance to buy chairs and desks. And the building can go to ruins for all they care.
“I do not want to dwell on the matter of some “emergency builders” within our football administration, who were disappointed that their companies were not given the contract to build the office, which they probably would have abandoned.”
That edifice, on which many of us sacrificed time and energy, is lying fallow. I will not be surprised if it is already being vandalised from inside. Very soon, Iam almost certain, someone would cart away the generator and other valuables, and may be in another two years, there would be a line in the budget for some billions of naira to buy or build a “befitting” house for the NFF
Adeniyi further added, “That edifice, on which many of us sacrificed time and energy, is lying fallow. I will not be surprised if it is already being vandalised from inside. Very soon, I am almost certain, someone would cart away the generator and other valuables, and may be in another two years, there would be a line in the budget for some billions of naira to buy or build a “befitting” house for the NFF. That is the way we are in Nigeria.
“The ‘Sunday Dankaro House’ tells a compelling story about our country and the kind of waste that has become the defining feature of our public life. Of the thousands of abandoned projects that lie fallow all over the country, many were actually completed before some people decided, for whatever reason, not to put them to use, like it is in this case with the NFF building.”
Adeniyi called on President Muhammadu Buhari to come up with a legal framework that would discourage waste of scarce resources in the country.
“At the heart of most abandoned projects is monumental corruption, it is important that we enact legislation that would curb the antics of those who have perfected the art of wasting public resources in the bid to feather their own nests,” he said.
At the heart of most abandoned projects is Gmonumental corruption, it is important that we enact legislation that would curb the antics of those who have perfected the art of wasting public resources in the bid to feather their own nests
N50 million Akpabio furniture gift
Recently, a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, reportedly gave the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF the sum of N50 million to furnish the Sunday Dankaro House and urged them to relocate there.
This followed complaints by the NFF that there was no furniture to be used in the complex. Yet, months after, not only has nothing been done, there was no sign of furniture in the complex when our correspondent visited.
We’re in no hurry to occupy office – NFF
The Secretary-General, NFF, Dr Sanusi Yusuf, however, disagreed with insinuations that the body abandoned the House. He said the football authorities were just not in a hurry to move into the new office.
He also added that contractors were working on reshaping the edifice to the NFF’s taste.
He said, “What is the cry about this abandoned project? We are not ready to move to Sunday Dankaro House because we are still working on it. As I speak with you, there are people working there. We are having a complete renovation. They are breaking walls to suit our taste and give the edifice a great look after completion.
“We are not so bothered about moving out of the Glass House now as nobody is chasing us. We are more concerned about how football would be developed and not about the building.”
Reacting to allegations that the NFF had been paying rent at the Glass House, Yusuf said the Glass House was a Federal Government property and as such, the NFF could not be paying rent.
As at the time of publication, efforts to reach a former NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari; and the present NFF boss and CAF executive member, Amaju Pinnick, to comment on the abandoned Sunday Dankaro House were unsuccessful.
