…Orders immediate renovation of IBB Golf club
By Sarah NEGEDU
FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has warned individuals or groups scheming to take over the IBB International Golf and Country Club through covert means to steer clear, as the facility remains public property and will not be ceded to private interest.
Wike, who issued the warning during his first-ever visit to the club on Saturday, maintained that the facility remains the property of the Federal Government.
The minister who also ordered the immediate renovation of the ageing clubhouse, declared the project as part of an emergency intervention to preserve the city’s key assets.
“You know I’m not a golfer. This is my first time of coming here and I’ve had some interest. My interest is, this is the property of government and I’m very proud for you to manage. When I came here, I was quite impressed. Like you said, there’s so many countries made by the tourism,” he said.
“And if you have people like today, they having Ecowas meeting taking place. Now, there may be golfers, they want to come and play golf. It’s very key. And that’s why we will not allow anybody to take what belongs to us. We will not allow that. Government is not a good manager.”
He said while government is open to private sector management of such facilities, ownership is not up for negotiation. “And that’s why government had to appoint board of trustees and board of trustees supervises the management committee to see how the place would be run. We have used so many things, the bus terminals. We can run it. We are going to give that to private persons. But that does not make you to be the owners. Simply we said, go and manage it. And people should have that at the back of their mind.”
Wike announced plans to commence renovation of the clubhouse as part of emergency infrastructure intervention across the city. He said Julius Berger, which originally built the structure, would be invited to handle the project.
“We’ll start with this one over here, which is the clubhouse. I will invite the Julius Berger. They are the ones who did this. It will be easier for them to handle,” he said.
Wike said the restoration of the club aligns with Abuja’s tourism and investment agenda, and commended the current board and management for keeping the facility in good condition despite obvious challenges.
“This is what everybody would like to have. Anybody who has good taste, anybody who means well for this country. These are the kind of things we must encourage,” he said. “If you open up the place now, then it will not degenerate. So it’s better we put this place quickly. I take it as part of the emergency that we must do.”
Earlier, President of the Court of Appeal and Chairperson of the Club’s Board of Trustees, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, described the minister’s visit as historic and said the facility had become overstretched after decades of use with limited maintenance.
“This clubhouse that we are staying in right now, it was meant to have a second floor, which has not been achieved to this date, over 30 years after the facility was built by Julius Berger,” she said.
She noted that the club’s membership has grown from 29 at inception, to over 5,000, but the facilities remain unchanged. “We are right now in the emergency unit, please pull us out.”
Justice Dongban-Mensem said the IBB Club is more than a golf course, describing it as an ecological and tourism hub that deserves attention. “We share this space with monkeys, birds and snakes. It’s a living sanctuary, and if we wait too long, we risk losing it.”
While appealing to the minister to urgently consider the club’s needs, the Chairperson described the golf course as “bleeding to death,” she said: “Golfers are addicts. If you take them away from golf for one day, they feel like fish out of water. We’ve been out for a couple of weeks now, so the intervention we need is very urgent. But as it is now, I will not in good conscience recommend that the courses be opened to use.”
