The Minister  made this assertion during an inspection tour of  the Surulere National Stadium, Lagos which  is under going rehabilitation.

According  to him, "it's high time we had a familiar ground for our national teams. The  Moshood Abiola National stadium Abuja and the Surulere

 National stadium, Lagos will be ready  to host matches next year  and it will be a major plus to our teams when they have a familiar ground.

"This arrangement is under the adopt initiative which is a public-private model that we developed. We were able to pitch that to the private sector. we discussed  with a philanthropist and lover of sports Sir Adebutu Keshington, who was convinced about the proposal. He is  somebody that has the youth of this country at heart and has done so much to support youth and  sports development.

"The Stadium  has a  rich history  with the likes of Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami and host of ex internationals who played in the memorable edifice that hosted so many international  competitions. The Engineer working on the site has assured that the stadium will be ready for use by  May next year."

Dare also assured that a maintenance template is in place to ensure that the facility does not go back to its poor state.

"The Ministry has a  department of facility which  is building a template for maintenance of the stadium. We have facility manager from the private sector that will work with our department of facility. Maintaining this facility is critical and we are going to take it very serious."