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•We won’t allow individuals to hijack the club — FCT Minister
Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has vowed that the President Bola Tinubu administration will not allow individuals to hijack the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida International Golf and Country Club, saying the government’s investment in the club cannot be left to rot.
Wike said this yesterday at the club in Aso Drive, Abuja, after listening to a Save-Our-Soul message by the Chairperson, Board of Trustees, BoT, of the club and Appeal Court President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem.
Justice Dongban-Mensem had appealed for urgent remedial actions on the facilities at the club to avoid a total collapse and a disruption of the ecosystem.
According to her, the fauna, especially monkeys, snakes and birds, could be lost due to a prolonged closure of the facility.
She said: “We are right now in the Intensive Care Unit, ICU. Please, pull us out. The clubhouse needs a thorough, if not total, reinvention. We are still standing, but we don’t want to get to a stage where we can no longer stand before something is done. We have many challenges. We need to restructure our places and reoccupy them more meaningfully. We need machinery, which is definitely beyond the financial capacity of the club to provide. And these machines are very vital instruments for the maintenance of the club.
Wike, in his remarks, said government will not allow anybody to take its property.
He said: “Let me advise troublemakers, it is not in this government that you will make that trouble. We will not allow you. No amount of blackmail will change me. This is government property.
That is why we are trying to spend money in order to attract people here and at the end of the day, government will make money too. So, let nobody think of that.’’
The IBB International Golf and Country Club was built by the Federal Government in 1991, with its facilities initially meant for 29 members. Its membership had since grown in excess of 5,000, thereby overstretching the limited facilities.
It has been embroiled in a leadership crisis and governance dispute. The crisis stems from internal power struggles and disagreements over the club’s governance. (VANGUARD)
