The 25th edition of the NUGA billed for the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State come November, 2015 may still be seven months away, but Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Emmanuel Iornumbe Kucha has stated that his institution will not wait till the last minutes to get all the facilities needed in place.
Prof. Kucha, while answering questions on the state of readiness of the university for the Games noted that there is absolutely no reason for the NUGA Council to have doubts over their readiness as work is already in progress to ensure that construction of the facilities commence by March.
“We’ll do the Games and very well too. NUGA Council had their meeting here in Makurdi and I must say that the outcome was not bad from what the NUGA president, secretary and the LOC chairman reported to me. The council saw what we have on ground with a promise that work would soon commence on the other facilities. We bided for this NUGA hosting and we’re not joking about it. That’s why as soon as we got it, we started preparing for it.
“As a government establishment, there are processes that must be followed. As we speak, processes for some of the facilities to come on board are already on and I can assure you that our October target of all the facilities being on ground and ready for use will be achieved.”
Though, he admited that sourcing for funds had not been an easy one, he believed things are beginning to fall in place as bids for the tender had already advertised for the construction of four additional hostel blocks, a multi-purpose Indoor Sports Hall and the construction of a squash court.
Kucha, however noted that the recent devaluation of the naira might pose some little problems but measures had been put in place to take care of such unforeseen development.
“We’re not unaware of the situation in the country as regards the devaluation of the naira but I can assure you that we won’t let that be a setback to achieving our set targets. Our only area of concern in this regard will be in the areas of facilities that are coming in from abroad but for construction, I think we’re still on course. In terms of construction taking off, I can tell you that by mid February to early March when the NUGA council will be in Makurdi, work would be on at various sites. In fact, the council will meet work in progress when they come for their next meeting.”
He stated that the university was working towards adding more football pitches, two indoor hall –one for squash and the other for multi sports likes table tennis, badminton, volleyball, basketball and others indoor games.
CREDIT: SunNews
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