Solution Fun City: Gain or Loss?

On Saturday June 28, the Anambra State Government finally threw its pet project, the Solution Fun City, open to the public, amid pomp and ceremony. The fun city is an amusement park housing such facilities as swimming pools, rollercoasters and swings, among others. Popular Nigerian artiste, Flavour, was among other top performers that featured at the event, as well as comedians and Nollywood actors and actresses.

Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has always harped on the importance of relaxation and said the Fun City, which he named after his alias, ”Solution”, would fill the fun gap in the state and offer families and individuals the opportunity to come and unwind. The facility is managed by an Egyptian.

However, opponents of the state government have been arguing that the facility is a waste of money, as it is not what the state required so urgently. They also condemn the elaborate open ceremony held by the state government.

To many of them, building a project that would have directly impacted on the citizens of the state would have been better; even as they point out that the state could not be celebrating when it is still under the siege of criminals. To them, it is security of life and property first.

For us, those arguments are good. However, we do not think the project is a waste of funds. It has automatically offered the people of the state – families, groups and individuals – the opportunity to unwind. Although a similar facility is owned by an individual, Chief Austin Ndigwe, in Awka, called Awka Wonderland, that facility has fallen short of expectations, as it hardly functions. Thus, in a state where there are few or no places families can go for relaxation, Solution Fun City has come to fill that gap.

In an ideal city, there ought to be facilities for sightseeing, relaxation and entertainment. Years ago in Enugu, there used to be a zoological garden where families took their children to on Sundays.

There was also the Polo Park where similar facilities at Solution Fun City were. But gradually, the zoo disappeared, with the site turned into an estate; while the Polo Park site was turned into a shopping mall. This put paid to any hopes of people going anywhere to unwind.

Anambra was like that, with not many places for amusement and relaxation. Although recently, some big supermarkets have started having such facilities for children, they are small and pandered only to the whims of children.

The Solution Fun City has changed all that as young men and women, as well as kids, and, indeed, people of all ages, can go there to have fun, either directly, or by watching family and friends luxuriating in the facilities there.

It is said that all work and no play dulls the mind. Having such a place as the Fun City is part of development as it develops the body and mind, and by the way many young people trooped to the place at its opening, there is little doubt that the place will blossom.

We are therefore, positing that the facility is far from being a waste of money, as it serves a very big function in the lives of people.

Now, it has been done with, let the government go on to other areas of development.