The roofs of the Lagos (left) and Warri Stadiums in state of disrepair
NOT many keen sports followers would be surprised about the acute level of decay most of the government-owned stadia in the country have fallen into in recent years. Insightful excursions just undertaken by the media and citizen-journalists show graphically that these edifices have crumbled. The distressing images of the stadia in Lagos, Abuja, Warri, Enugu and Ibadan depict monumental eyesores, the story of a national pride left in tatters because of neglect and poverty of ideas. They present the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development an excellent opportunity to fix the rot.
According to the viral media reports, the National Stadium in Lagos, the Warri Stadium in Delta State and the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan, Oyo State, are in a dilapidated state. Their roofs are torn; their seats, playing surfaces and athletics tracks damaged beyond recognition. The stench of excreta and urine is overpowering, having become dens for the destitute. In Nigeria, sport is a national passion and it is the dream of most youths to exploit as a stepping-stone to success. The rot speaks volumes of the horrible maintenance culture in the country.
But the decay did not start today. Long before the coronavirus pandemic broke out in December, these stadia had been sorely neglected, lacking electricity and dotted with rundown facilities. The National Stadium, Lagos, which opened in 1972 ahead of the Second All Africa Games in 1973, is an unmitigated mess. The Green Eagles won the Nations Cup for the first time in 1980 at this stadium and it used as the launch pad to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Named the Sports City because of its multi-sport facilities like Olympic-sized swimming pool, indoor hall, training pitches, gyms, offices, the initial 55,000-seating capacity main bowl and the National Institute for Sports. However, due to a combination of factors, it last hosted a major football competition, the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, in 2009. From that time, the deterioration has escalated rapidly.
The MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja, where the Sports Ministry is located, is wretched. Built at the cost of N54 billion in 2003, it has become a grazing site for cattle. The Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan is no more recognisable, just like the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu and others in Jos, Kaduna, Kano and the U.J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar. All of them – except Jos – were rehabilitated to host the matches of the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. But between then and now, there has been a pronounced deterioration.
For years, this national dereliction has denied the national football teams the benefit of having a home to play their international matches — in Lagos or Abuja. As such, the Eagles go round in circles, begging state governments to host them. This is far from the ideal, bearing in mind that England play at Wembley, Scotland at Hampden Park, France at Parc de Princes (Paris) and Brazil at the Maracanã (Rio de Janeiro). In football, a settled home with the fans is regarded as an advantage for the host team.
Besides, the decay puts youth development in jeopardy, given the country’s high youth unemployment rate. A virile sport industry is a plus for a government. Sport and economics are fast bonding together all over the world. It is argued that if sport was only about winning and losing, there would be no stadia, and weekend TV would be incredibly dull. The business of sport ranges from the field to executive suites to televisions worldwide. According to a Forbes estimate, the industry was worth $145.3 billion in 2015. Conversation, an online publication, says for teams and a league, the incentive to implement economic ideas is financial.
Eric Falt, United Nations Director of Communications, said in 2004 that sport “is an industry with unparalleled global reach and power. Globally, sport-related turnover amounts to three per cent of world total economic activity. In the United Kingdom, for example, sport-related turnover equals that of the automotive and food industries. Major events such as the football World Cup or Formula One Grand Prix are watched around the world. At the same time, the corporate practices of this worldwide industry can and do have widespread impact, socially and environmentally.” American Football’s Super Bowl attracts 111 million viewers each year in the USA alone. In Australia, the broadcast rights for the AFL and NRL are each around A$2 billion. And this doesn’t even count the merchandise that can be sold to fans, the report says. Through sport, athletes earn a lot of money. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal international, has just emerged as the first football billionaire. Lionel Messi of Argentina and other Latin American football stars in Europe earn millions of dollars annually, some of which they repatriate home to fund their countries’ economies. Through taxes, the UK Treasury earned £3.3 billion from the English Premier League in 2016-17, Ernst & Young stated. In all, the PL alone contributed £7.6 billion to the UK economy that season. For Nigeria, all this is lost because sport is still largely an amateur affair, operating at the behest of the government.
Therefore, this is the time to discard that old, failed, amateurish way of operating. In many parts of the world, sport facilities are maintained diligently. They help to raise new athletes and income. The argument of the Sports Ministry that COVID-19 delayed the renovation of the stadia is untenable. It is just that they are not being run as a business. Real Madrid, a leading Spanish football club, reopened their La Liga season at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium on June 14 because of renovation works at their home, the Santiago Bernabeu. There were no COVID-19 excuses because the club has income at stake.
The Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, should therefore make a difference, compared to previous ministers. The lesson from the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, owned by Victoria State, is that the stadium, built in 1853, is being run by a management committee. From an income of $155.3 million in 2018 and $165.3 million in 2019, it made profits of $8.9 million and $16.9 million respectively.
But lower investment in sport decreases the potential for athletes to build their talent here. Dare should think of novel ideas to salvage these national assets. “Muscle drain,” it is argued, has been deemed comparable to “brain drain” – athletes from developing countries like Nigeria supply the industrialised countries’ markets with talent because of limited opportunities at home. Running a stadium is not going to be cheap. They need regular work to ensure they are in prime condition. Football pitches need to be maintained to guarantee their pristine outlook.
Reputable management teams should be constituted to run each stadium under Federal Government control with specific terms of operation, including attracting sponsorships and staging entertainment and religious programmes. This policy should be outside the scope of the civil service because it has failed to deliver. These stadia should be run like a business, but national teams should be allowed access to them without hassles.
The minister should review the application from Lagos State, which wants to take control of the National Stadium in Lagos, knowing that a similar arrangement with the Enugu State Government on the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium has not worked. State governments should similarly put these structures in place to revive their sport assets.
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