Old glory: Abuja MKO Abiola stadium swimming pools turn reptiles’ abodes

Asides from the filthy environment especially around the outdoor sports fields and tracks, resulting from poor waste management and open defecation, the 2000-capacity swimming arena at the Moshood Kashimawo Abiola Stadium, formerly known as the National Stadium, Abuja, is in a deplorable state.
The water in both swimming pools is untreated, while the smaller pool is infested with frogs, toads, and other reptiles, amphibians, and waste materials such as nylons and plastics, among other things.

The stadium was renamed by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, after Bashorun MKO Abiola who contributed N11m to its construction when the stadium was launched in 1989.

Built by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to host the eighth All-Africa Games, Abuja 2003, the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, was a pride of the nation and the African continent at the time.

The first match played in the main bowl of the stadium was between former African champions, Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan and their South-Western rivals, Sunshine Stars of Akure.

However, the Oluyole Warriors, as players of the Ibadan-based club were fondly called, won with a lone-goal victory, and the 3SC striker, Shakiru Lawal made history as the first footballer to score a goal at the magnificent stadium on April 8, 2003, in front of a large crowd of spectators, including Obasanjo.
The stadium, which was built between September 2000 and April 2003 at the cost of $360m, was a world-class structure that was ranked among the top 50 most expensive stadiums in the world.

It was constructed by construction giant, Julius Berger, and consisted of Package A and Package B. It served as a home to the Nigerian national football team, as well as a centre for various social, cultural, and religious events.

Package A comprises an all-covered main bowl with 60,491 seating capacity with other facilities such as the presidential suite and viewing area, 56 corporate suites, modern turnstiles, banks, media facilities, two electronic scoreboards, floodlights and a helipad.

Apart from having a VIP car park and a public parking lot, Package A also boasts of standard practice pitches, a velodrome, shops and kiosks, generators, emergency service units, closed circuit security cameras and crowd control steel fencing, among others.

These facilities, among others, made the stadium, a national pride. The stadium played host to some big football matches, including the international friendlies between the Super Eagles and their counterparts from Brazil and Argentina.

The MKO Abiola Stadium also played host to the 2009 U-17 World Cup.

However, checks by our correspondent in May 2023, indicated that most of the facilities at the complex, built at a whopping $360m in 2003, had deteriorated while the environment looked unkempt, rough with grasses growing all over parts of the walkways and parking lots, and frogs and toads residing in its swimming pools, due to abandonment and poor management.
The abandonment is also evident in a 2022 incident that led to the death of a 13-year-old boy, Matthew Godwin, who drowned in the swimming pool due to the absence of lifeguards and security officers.

Godwin’s death led to the shutdown of the swimming pool arena by the Ministry for Youths and Sports Development, while the former Minister, Sunday Dare, ordered an investigation into the incident. Nevertheless, the situation has worsened.

The swimming pool showed signs of decay due to lack of maintenance, while frogs and toads have continued to breed inside it like a pond of fish.

Checks by our correspondent also revealed that many of the seats in the spectators’ section of the swimming pool arena had been badly damaged, while many of them had been torn and looking tattered, with the bad ones dumped on the top deck in a messy lump.

Five out of the over 10 fire-fighting vehicles seen at the stadium complex had broken down for many years.

Though our correspondent couldn’t gain access to the main bowl, it was observed that the toilets within the dome-like structure where the Presidential Inauguration Concert was held between Thursday, May 25 and Friday, May 26, were poorly managed.

Also, the open field that harbours local footballers, athletes, boxers, and other sportsmen and women, stinks with waste littered all around, while the waste containers are filled to the brim, and spilling over.
Package B does not show much difference, as the facilities there have also deteriorated so much.

The MANS is also equipped with emergency service units and closed-circuit security cameras, many of which are no longer functional.

The glory of the stadium, which was for some time, a pride of sports-loving Nigerians, did not last long, twenty years after its completion, and the several renovations it experienced, especially following the change of its name by former President Muhammadu Buhari, whose government hurriedly put the stadium in shape to host the 19th National Sports Festival, Abuja 2019, which was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, proved to be inadequate.

The stadium was in deplorable condition before December 2018 when the sports fiesta was held in Abuja. Before then, both Package A and Package B of the stadium were taken over by weeds to the extent that grasses outgrew the beautiful landscaping of the stadium.

Also, about two years after the Dangote Group of Companies handed over the stadium to the Federal Government, after spending a whopping $1m to renovate it, the rehabilitated football pitch of the stadium is back to its old deplorable state.

The stadium renovation was made possible courtesy of the Federal Government’s Adopt-A-Pitch initiative aimed at private-sector collaboration to uplift sports facilities in the country.

The revamped Moshood Abiola Stadium is complete with nursery beds, two digital scoreboards, 24 sprinklers, and two-year maintenance, as part of the contract reached with Dangote Industries under the Adopt-a-Pitch Public-Private Partnership initiative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.

In February 2022, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, whose company, Dangote Industries Group, sponsored the rehabilitation of the pitch, expressed satisfaction with the job done, as he was conducted around the pitch with the sprinklers working perfectly, and the two digital score-boards beaming live.

In his remarks, Dangote assured the Sports Minister of his continued support.

“You can be assured of our continued support. You can always knock on our doors. We shouldn’t allow our stadia to collapse. Nigerians have a very strong love for sports, so I think we need to complement the government’s efforts to ensure that everything works,” he said.

Prior to Dangote’s intervention, the stadium had deteriorated from a monument of national pride to a site of national embarrassment, with the pitch in a bad state.

The facility, which had been turned into a grazing ground by herdsmen, has cattle droppings all over the surroundings of the indoor section of the stadium.

Sportsmen, women lament
Some sportsmen and women who frequent the stadium, and spoke to our correspondent during his visit, noted that the poor management of the facilities was affecting sporting activities.

“Most people don’t feel good training or playing football, lawn or table tennis, and even basketball here anymore due to the poor management of the facilities,” John, a local footballer said.

“Before now, my family and I usually came here to train and play different kinds of sports every Saturday and Sunday. But that has stopped now, and I only come here once in a while these days. We stopped coming because most of the facilities are either bad or poorly managed, and the environment is dirty,” said Patricia, an athlete.

The Ministry of Youths and Sports Development could not be reached, as several phone calls and text messages to the phone line of the former Minister for Youths Sports, Sunday Dare were not returned.

Meanwhile, sports fans and analysts have urged the new administration of President Bola Tinubu to invest more in sports and improve on the little gains of the former administration.

A sports lover, Adeola said, “We’re hoping that the new government of Asiwaju Tinubu would do better than the former administration by increasing the budget and investment into sports.”

“The government needs to invest more in sports, and also empower young sportsmen. We know that they have been trying, but they need to do better,” Joel said.

“If the government invests more in this stadium and does proper monitoring and management, things will get better here, and sporting activities would improve over the years,” another sports enthusiast, Ada, said.



Punch