The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Enugu Chapter, has called on the Enugu State Government to refurbish the facilities at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium.
The association made the appeal on Friday in Enugu in a communique after its monthly congress at its secretariat inside Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium.
The congress which was presided over by the chairman Norbert Okolie made the following resolutions:
“That Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi should as a matter of urgency carry out an aggressive maintenance of facilities at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium which it took over from the Federal Government few years ago.”
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The association also noted that the facilities in some segments of the stadium were fast dilapidating.
SWAN urged the state government to do everything within its powers to reclaim the Indoor Sports Hall of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium currently under the control of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
According to the communique, Enugu remains the only state in the six geo-political zones of the country where the Federal Government is still in charge of the Indoor Sports Hall of a stadium handed over to a state government.
The congress equally called on the government to expedite action in commencing the construction of the two sports stadia it promised to put in place in Oji River and Nsukka.
The communique said it was captured in the 2019 budget, noting that such facilities if realised, would go a long way in changing the grassroots sports narratives in the state.
It advised the government to ensure early release of funds to the state contingent to the 2019 Youth Game in Ilorin, the Kwara capital.
It said that such would make the state not to engage in the usual fire brigade preparation which had always affected the state adversely since the commencement of the age grade sports competition.
Meanwhile, the association has renewed its call to the government to appoint a competent sports technocrat as commissioner for youths and sports in his second tenure.
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The association congratulated the Enugu-based Rangers International FC for emerging one of Nigeria’s representatives in the 2019 CAF Confederation Cup.
It also called on the management of the team to integrate members of the state’s SWAN in her planning and execution of the continental engagement as partners in progress.
The association called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports and organisers of the 2019 edition of the Enugu National Half Marathon to carry SWAN in the state as a body along during the competition.
This, it said, was to avoid a repeat of what transpired during the maiden edition in 2018. (NAN)