Presidential Research & Communications Unit

The Federal Executive Council has approved contracts worth about N1 billion for development of sports facilities in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). This is to boost the capacity of the Institution to host the Nigerian Universities Games (NUGA) 2009.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Mr John Odey who made the disclosure in company of the Minister of Education, Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu and Chairman of National Sports Commission, Abdurrahman Gimba, while briefing the media on the outcome of the week’s FEC meeting, on July 23 at the State House in Abuja, stated that the council approved the contracts to eight firms as part of its desire to improve skills and standards in the educational sector, which is in line with the seven-point agenda.

The Minister revealed that there is a provision of N1.17 billion in this year’s budget to take care of various projects noting that the institution was desirous of upgrading and improving its existing facilities and constructing new ones towards a successful hosting of NUGA.
The contracts which have a completion period of 36 weeks cover tennis court, sport hostel, landscaping, driveways and parking lot.
Also in a bid to create enabling environment for business at the ports in Lagos State, FEC also approved the suspension of 16 tank farms that failed to meet the minimum conditions and requirements for provision of holding bay and associated facilities from using the Lagos bays for discharging their petroleum products. Ban has also been placed on creation of new tank farms within the Lagos ports until the issue is re-visited.

The Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, who made the disclosure alongside Governor Babatunde Fashola stated that the action became necessary because of the activities of the tank farms that had encouraged drivers of articulated tankers to congest access roads to the ports, thereby impacting negatively on other businesses in the area.
According to her, the suspension would be in effect until the operators of such tank farms built their independent holding bays to accommodate vehicles meant to take products from them. With this action, only the 22 tank farms that met the operational guidelines and provisions of requisite holding bays would be allowed to continue to operate.

Explaining further, Governor Fashola said drivers of the articulated vehicles had defied measures to decongest the access roads noting that in spite of modern communication facilities available in the country, the tank farms and their customers had refused to relocate to a terminal allocated to them.
Allaying fears that the suspension may precipitate product scarcity, Fashola stated that the idea was to avoid the many accidents being recorded on Lagos roads as a result of the activities of the tank farms. He observed that the advantages of the suspension outweighed the disadvantages, adding that there is a need to sanitise the area.

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