Guardian

THE IBB International Golf and Country Club, Abuja, will soon cease to be the exclusive club in the FCT following the emergence of a new club, the Goodluck Jonathan Golf Club, located at the Nigeria Airforce (NAF) base along the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport road.

The club, which was commissioned in 2011 by President Goodluck Jonathan, was opened for official use by golfers when it hosted a one-day Democracy Day Kitty last week to mark 14 years of uninterrupted democracy in the country.

Speaking to The Guardian at the one-day kitty, which saw Corporal J. Friday of the Rhino Golf Club and Amina Wilfred of the IBB Club winning the best Nett for the men and women categories respectively, Lady Captain of the club, Ekanem Ekwueme, who described the brown course as a baby course, noted that the kitty was aimed at introducing the new course to golfers within the FCT and its environs.

She added that the need to decongest the IBB International Golf and Country Club gave rise to the decision of officers of the NAF Base to set up the Goodluck Jonathan Golf Club.

“Ninety-nine per cent of golfers in Abuja and its environs did not know that there was a golf course like this outside the IBB.  So it is an awakening to reduce the traffic and population at the IBB Golf Club. There has to be some diversions and the best is a location like this inside the NAF Base. We had over 100 entries for the kitty, meaning that if we have full tournament here, it will be great in registration and attendance.

“All our efforts now is to change it from a brown golf course with nine holes to a green one and from the green, we work towards having an 18-hole course. We hope that the president, which the golf course is named after, will support us as we move forward.

“After the Democracy Day Kitty, the club will also host the Northern Lady’s Golfers Association Championship in November before the September tournament,” she said.

She revealed that the club plans a kitty and a golf clinic for children from around the environment in its catch them young programme, adding that the course is owned by the Airforce with a new committee set up to manage the course.

“The captain, who is the head of the presidential air fleet, Air Commodore Onuh, and his team, has begun in a very big way with the organisation of this kitty, which came up barely two weeks after its inauguration. Now that we have a committee, the club will do more in the nearest future,” she assured.