National Stadium, Lagos, National Shame, Nigeria
In 1972, the then Nigerian military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon inaugurated the National Stadium located in Surulere, Lagos. In what was known as a sports fanfare, he had opened a new phase in the history of sports in the country referring to the stadium as the nation’s sports village. The stadium has hosted many important tournaments significant to the nation image and international figures that have brought joy to the people.
That nation’s sports village is today a national embarrassment to Nigeria and Africa. Portraying Africa as where setting up public projects was not the case but the ability to maintain them which usually results in shame. Nigeria is the giant of Africa in this regard. In Nigeria, policies of the leaders of that very country are often shrouded in mystery because they are never understood, much less beneficial. The world is today missing actions in the stadium courtesy of the Federal Ministry of Sports. No one remembers that at was inside the National Stadium, Lagos that the nation won its first ever African Cup of Nations in 1980 exactly 20 years of its independence from the British.
The present condition of the stadium can best be described by sports authorities in the country. Utterly abandoned for no known reasons, it is in utmost neglect. Its front premises is best suitable for urinating, there is no water in this massive stadium anywhere around. In the weightlifting gym, weights and bells are missing. The condition of the swimming pool which remains permanently shut is in terrible state without any water in the pools. Lovers of football will weep inside the main stadium where the scoreboard is not functioning. The irons of the gates have rusted to the extent that they have added a new kind of beauty to the stadium. Urine, garbage, excreta etc can still found here. Some plastic chairs have also been removed.
Sadly, electricity in the stadium has been disconnected by the Almighty Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) “The power holders of the country” since 2002. It is understood that the stadium is indebted to the Power management to the tune of about N4m. Is it not laughable that the statue of the legendary Samuel Sochukwuma Okparaji who died for the nation still lies in the stadium helplessly wondering why it should be there? Who out there would wish to die for his nation and one day be left to rote-away in a forgotten monument like the Lagos Stadium?
As usual, social and religious activities are thriving inside the sports hall where events cost about N200,000.00 per day and N65,000.00 per day at the outside space. Remember that permission is necessary all the way from Abuja before social and kind of religious or social activities can be staged here.
Nigerians and especially Lagosians are baffled as to why the Nation’s leaders in sports decided to abandon the stadium that has brought glory to the nation in football competitions. The problem with the Nigerian leaders seems to be that everything in the country must be rotational, thus politicizing even sports. Little wonder, the Kano venue cost the nation the 2006 World Cup ticket. The National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos will always remove the shine in the Abuja Stadium any weekend bearing in mind that Lagosians will do anything to be at the stadium to watch matches. The 1999 under-age football tournament hosted by the nation and played inside the Abuja Stadium is a testimony of this as the sports authorities of the country almost went begging football fans in their houses to come to the stadium and watch matches inside the stadium.
A nation should know where its bread is buttered in every sector and no yardstick conditionally underlines that a stadium located in the capital city of a country must play host to important football tournaments even when spectators are sure to be scanty. Abuja is a city where ordinarily inhabitants do not dedicate so much time to visit the stadium to watch live matches if compared to the Lagos State which remains the commercial nerve of the country.
What has become the problem with Lagos and the stadium located in it is a mystery to football lovers in the state and elsewhere. Recently, a stigma attached to the stadium by the nation’s sports helmsmen began to manifest reflecting in absolute abandonment. The feeling from this quarter is that the Lagos fans are in the habit of constantly booing their own fans resulting in negative feelings from the Nigerian players and maybe losses but this is too an unjustifiable reason to abandon one’s own sprawling sports city which the nation spent so much money in the period of oil boom to construct.
Every nation has unique features and reactions, it is surprising that our leaders fail to realize this and view the action with sentiments. More so, with an unbeaten record in the stadium running for many years, victories are better guaranteed in the stadium than anywhere else. The successes of this action owe the fans who ensure that the Nigerian players are prepared and more serious, and willing to give in his best. But who says that the action of booing the Nigerian players when they are failing to do well in action is dead in Abuja where more than half the spectators are Lagos fans? Certainly, the implication of the rejection of the stadium is that in the dearth stadiums in the country, authorities are doing away with what should count above the vast play-grounds often termed stadiums.
Closely facing the abandoned National Stadium is the Teslim Balogun Stadium which now enjoys some much patronage. But what is the tendency that this very stadium definitely not as large as the National Stadium will not one day be abandoned? The Teslim stadium itself took donkey years to arrive at its present state.
If the country is one that detrimental policies are quarried and leaders held accountable to the people, the abandonment of the stadium will in the first place be considered incomprehensible and unprecedented for a situation like this should never occur because elected office holders ought to come up with policies that should satisfy the citizens of the nation. Now that the National Stadium has become a museum of some sort in the minds of the nation’s leaders, it is hoped that others alike do not go its way as a call should go to the Federal Ministry of Sports to do something else the stadium will become one of those debris found in Lagos.
Emeka Esogbue hails from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria.
emekaesogbue@yahoo.com
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