MKO Abiola National Stadium: A shadow of its old self

In this report, TAOFEEK LAWAL writes on the appalling state of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja and why the stadium may not hold any international event soon.

A first-time visitor to Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, who has heard about the MKO Abiola National Stadium, its size and beauty and would want to see the giant edifice, will never believe it has hosted several international games and competitions in the past.

While package A is home to the main bowl and the velodrome, package B hosts indoor sports and other ball games, the swimming pool arena and even the Sunday Dankaro House, the Nigeria Football Federation’s secretariat.

For the record, the stadium was built by the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and hosted the 2003 All Africa Games, codenamed the COJA Games. The national monument, built with more than $60 billion, was a beauty to behold and competed with the best in the world in terms of facilities.

Renamed after the late Africa’s Pillars of Sports, Bashorun MKO Abiola, on June 12, 2019, by the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, the stadium, like the Wembley Stadium in England, was supposed to be the flagship venue for Nigerian football, but the facility has faced criticism over its maintenance culture, with calls for better upkeep of the playing turf.

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The MKO National Stadium served as one of the centres for the FIFA U17 World Cup, which Nigeria hosted in 2009 and not too long ago, hosted the unforgettable and epic 2022 World Cup qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Black Stars of Ghana, with the stands full.

The outcome of the match, one can say, was the beginning of the end for the MKO Abiola Stadium as angry fans, who felt let down that Nigeria would not be going to Qatar for the World Cup, invaded the playing turf and damaged technical areas and other things they could lay their hands on.

Even the intervention of the business icon, Aliko Dangote, during the time of Sunday Dare as Minister of Sports had little impact, as the $1 million donation from Dangote, which was expected to bring life back to the facility, changed nothing.

There was also a time that the re-grassing of the playing turf cost millions of naira, with nothing to show and no one was held accountable.

As a result, the NFF has practically made the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, the permanent home ground of the Super Eagles, as no other stadium in the country meets FIFA requirements at least for now.

Save for the ‘Nest of Champions’ in Uyo, the Super Eagles could have moved their home games to neighbouring countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana or the Ivory Coast.

Now, what served as a monument and source of national pride years back has become a national disgrace and embarrassment.

The appalling state of the stadium and its facilities has seen Nigeria lose the hosting rights of the 2030 Commonwealth Games to New Delhi, India, a more serious country in terms of facilities.

The last-minute effort to railroad the Commonwealth Games’ inspection team to grant Nigeria the hosting rights met a brick wall.

This set of people are not moved by emotions; they are moved by what they see on the ground, in addition to other factors that will aid smooth hosting.

As it is characteristics of those at the helm of affairs at all levels of governance in Nigeria, the National Sports Commission (NSC), under the leadership of its chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko and the Director-General, Bukola Olopade, quickly work on the turf of the stadium (which apparently is not television friendly) because of the visit of Dr Decius Chipande-led Evaluation Committee as Nigeria bid to host the African Games in 2031. It remains to be seen if Nigeria will get the hosting rights despite the assurances given by Dikko and Olopade.

Hosting of church programmes and crusades, musical jams, association games, among other events, has done more harm than good to the playing turf and other facilities, which have been overstretched when the aforementioned programmes take place.

As the authorities generate revenue through this system, stakeholders are still at sea as to whether what is being generated is judiciously spent.

Lately, the NSC came up with the idea of tolling at the entrances to packages A and B for vehicle owners with different ticket fees depending on the size of the vehicles.

To date, no one has come out to inform Nigerians what the gate takings are being used for. The training pitches have been overgrown by weeds and are not being maintained as they should be. The main bowl is in a shambles as the chairs are very dirty with litter everywhere.

The pitch has “gone back” to its “creator” losing its aesthetic value and is no longer appealing. While the VIP Lounges look ordinary and do not portray Nigeria as a serious nation hoping to host the world anytime soon, the toilets are in a very sorry state and water is not available all the time to keep them clean.

The NSC leadership has not only paid lip service to bringing the stadium back to its old self and restoring its old glory, but all assurances given have not seen the light of day. Dikko, in separate media interviews, has promised to fix the stadium; however, nothing has happened yet.

In one of the interviews, Dikko told Sporting Tribune that the NSC is working around the clock to see that every part of the stadium is brought back to life, as the Very Important Persons (VIPs) sides, the lounges and new tracks will be fixed.

He said, “We are trying to put a new pitch here. We’re already in the process. We want to put the best pitch here; the best in Africa is what we want to put here. That’s why we have brought people who have done one of the biggest pitches in the world. They were here.

“They looked at the stadium, and they took the sand. They took the water to Europe to test it. To make sure that okay, let’s see the kind of water we have. This is the kind of grass that can grow here.

“They are coming with solutions that will give us a long-standing pitch that all Nigerians will be proud of. And then, apart from the pitch, the NSC is also working to bring the stadium back to life. We want to expand the VIP, fix the lounges and everything, the new tracks so that we can have a proper stadium that we can be proud of and that will be our true National Stadium.”

There are also reports that the Federal Government has approved N24.6 billion to renovate the stadium this year, part of a N203 billion sports budget earmarked for the NSC.

Speaking with Sporting Tribune on the condition of the stadium, a former member of the House of Representatives and chairman of the House Committee on Sports, Hon. Godfrey Ali Gaiya, described it as an eyesore.

He queried where the allocation to sports is going to come, as he urged the authorities to take a cue from Morocco, a country that has suddenly become a Mecca of sorts to hosting competitions from CAF and FIFA in recent times.

“The MKO Stadium in Abuja has become an eyesore. I chaired the Committee on Sports in the 7th assembly, and we had a very serious running battle, particularly about the Stadium. The management, the maintenance, and the running of that stadium is appalling.

“Leadership that would make sure that the stadium runs well is lacking. Let us call a spade, a spade. I watched the AFCON that took place in Morocco, and if you compare what I saw even on television in Morocco to what we have today in Nigeria, with all due respect, it’s an eyesore.

“Nigeria cannot be so blessed and will have little or nothing in terms of sporting facilities to show. If we remove a state-managed stadium, the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo by the Akwa Ibom government, then there is nothing left for us here.

“The six national stadia that we have from Kaduna, in Bauchi, in Surulere, Lagos, in Enugu and the one in Ibadan are all in a dilapidated situation. Management is lacking.

“We need to sit down and take that sporting sector seriously. The present government is not taking it seriously. That is why we cannot host any games here. Nobody will come. Forget about even the insecurity that you can talk about nationally.

“Look at even what is available as a hosting arena. Do we have any? Nobody, no Sporting Federation worldwide can come to Nigeria and say we want to host. So we don’t have the leadership that is interested in sporting facilities.

“The allocation to sports, where is it going to come away from? How is it that Nigeria at any time, can be trusted to host sporting events? We were interested in hosting the Commonwealth Games, and countries like India also showed interest and lo and behold, they took it away from us.

“That commitment of leadership is lacking, and without that good commitment from leadership, sports facilities cannot go anywhere,” the former federal lawmaker told Sporting Tribune.