With the Melbourne Commonwealth Games winding down the city of Abuja Nigeria has intensified its campaign for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, reports an African Web site.
The Abuja 2014 bid committee is in Melbourne trying to drum up support from among the Commonwealth Games family to organize the 2014 Games.
Former President General Yakubu Gowon, chairman of the bid committee, said the Abuja campaign is based on the fact that Africa is the only region in the Commonwealth, which has not hosted the Games.
He told journalists at the Nigeria House, headquarters for Abuja 2014 in Melbourne, “our approach is that the Games have gone around all the regions of the Commonwealth apart from Africa. It is important the Commonweal Games circle should be complete with Abuja hosting the 2014”.
Gowon said his committee was considering enlisting several African sporting icons to boost Abuja’s bid.
The committee has made two presentations in Melbourne, one to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and the other to members of the Commonwealth Games.
In the presentation the bid committee proposes to build a new Games village and undertake major infrastructure projects, which include massive improvement in the city’s transportation system.
Mallam Nassir El Rufai, the Federal Capital Territory Minster, outlined the city’s transport improvement plans in one of the presentation videos. He said, “we already have the Abuja taxi system, the Green cabs running” and they expect scheduled services to be running in the city very soon. He added, “by 2012 we want to have our train transport system working”.
Allafrica.com reports that security would be one of the major concerns for the CGF in considering Abuja’s bid, especially with the threat of international terrorism.
Gowon said the Federal government would be willing to enlist the help of larger Commonwealth members in ensuring adequate security if they win the bid.
Nigeria also faces challenges within the operations of the oil industry.
And according to the Web site there is also the problem of sectarian violence, which flares up often in Nigeria, but Gowon says that would not be a hindrance to the bid.
He said, “we had no security problems with the All African Games (in 2003) and we know the Commonwealth Games are bigger but we know the Nigerian security will be up to the task and if necessary, we would invite other members of the Commonwealth to come and work together with the Nigerian security forces to ensure maximum security”.
Also power outages are common in the city and Abuja would have to greatly improve its power supply.
