The former chief medical director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital [UBTH}, Professor Eugene Okpere, has disclosed that the now famous UBTH Golf Club was built not out of passion for the game of golf but as a necessary means to ward off desperate cultists who were rampaging the University of Benin campus at the time. The club was founded some 13 years ago.
Okpere, a no-nonsense administrator, further stated that the site on which the course, which at the moment is about the largest in the country, is sitting used to be a notorious forest that was gulping millions of naira monthly in maintenance alone since it was covered with all species of trees that provided adequate cover for all manner of criminals.
— UBTH Golf Club (@UBTHGolf) January 1, 2021
“It was so tiring at the time”, Okpere stated, “I mean those bad boys would create unspeakable acts at the University of Benin campus and run down here at the UBTH to seek cover. All sorts of things were going on. Even the cultists were carrying out various initiations across the place. Worse still, our medical staff were residing around this same vicinity. It was terrifying to hear staff talking about all manners of burglary they were coping with. Yet, we were spending millions of naira to clear the forest every month. It was like if we clear it today, in a matter of weeks the whole thing has grown again.”
Okpere would, however, be thankful to an eye surgeon and golfer within the UBTh, Professor Waziri Erameh, who suggested that the forest be turned into a golf course which would provide plain and clear view rather than thick, dark forest the cultists preferred.
“I wasn’t into golf at the time and I just waved off Waziri’s suggestion as utter rubbish”. Okpere confessed. “1 mean the little I knew then was that golf was a money-spinning sport and I was only wondering where the billions to construct and maintain a course would come from. But Waziri told me billions would not be needed and that all it would cost was the same monthly payment spent to clear the forest.
“That was all I needed to hear and I gave my approval. I set up a committee to work with Waziri and the committee moved to nurture the course from the very beginning. The committee did well and I thereafter appointed Waziri to serve as captain of the club and he served for five years. Truth is I never believed the course would come out to fully beautify the residential areas surrounding the vast forest.
“All of a sudden, activities sprang up on the course and I became thrilled when I saw young doctors joining the club to play the game. It was at that time I came into golf, too. Ever since I started playing, I became addicted to the game. No day passes without me thinking of ways to squeeze out time to play. The experience is wonderful.
“Besides, within a short time, we were receiving accolades from everywhere. It was then I discovered that we were the first University in West Africa to have a golf course. That really moved me that I had to provide a three-star hotel by the side of the course. That hotel is generating huge funds today. Moreover, the course helped us chase cultists and hoodlums away from our institution and that was our major aim, you know. I am very proud to have initiated this project.”
