Save Awka Stadium from Deteriorating

Awka Township Stadium was one of the projects of the immediate past administration that was hailed, being that the capital city had no such facility.

Although small, it boasts of one of the best pitches in the country and today hosts many sporting activities, the biggest of which is hosting the league games of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu. Matches by Rangers at this stadium have been attracting many football fans who usually fill the one covered stand to the rafters.

But less than two years after the commissioning of the stadium, some of the facilities there have started going to seed. For instance, the seats at the VIP section have all virtually spoilt and this has forced fans to start sitting on the floor. That’s not good enough.

Also the tartan tracks have started developing issues and could very well become unusable in the near future.

The road around the gate area is also going bad and usually gets muddy once it rains. This makes it difficult for vehicle owners to access it.

Apart from these issues, it is unfortunate that up till now, the project which was yet to be completed before being commissioned, has not witnessed any additional infrastructural development under the current administration of Prof Chukwuma Soludo.

Such facilities like the scoreboard and the lighting system are yet to be installed. Indeed, last, Sunday, during the match between Rangers and Heartland, visibility was getting poor towards the end of that game. It is clear that if it were a knockout competition where extra time was needed the match would have been stopped owing to poor visibility.

We call on the government of Prof Soludo to focus attention on the stadium by not just repairing the spoilt facilities but making efforts to add the much needed ones to make the stadium a complete one.

Adequate security should equally be provided at the stadium to discourage  the theft of some of the facilities there. The entrance gate is nothing to write home about as anyone can scale it. The stadium needs urgent attention now that the deterioration hasn’t become worse.

Such a facility as the stadium that gives joy to the citizenry should not be allowed to further deteriorate. Government, after all, is a continuum.

A stitch in time can still save nine.