National Stadium Surulere: The Tragic Decline of Nigeria's Iconic Sporting Venue

and we turn our attention to a subject that resonates deeply with every single Nigerian well who holds the nation's sporting Heritage close to their hearts the National Stadium in surer yes that one in Lagos once the pul hitting Center of Nigerian Sports is now a shadow of its former self built in 1972 this iconic stadium was the stage for some of Nigeria's most glorious sporting moments but today it stands in a state of disrepair neglected and almost totally forgotten so the question is how did we get here and what does this mean for the future of sports in Nigeria joining us today is news Central's sports editor tund Kiki who had just completed a special report on the shocking Decline and state of the National Stadium suru L and he's here to shed light on the factors that led to this tragic downfall the impact on our athletes and the potential for Revival Sundy welcome to the program thank you very much it's an absolute pleasure to be here thank you uh we saw the report five minutes expose going into the stadium and seeing how dilapitated decimated a once national pride has become National Disgrace yeah I think that's um the best way to describe it National Disgrace I say know as a multi million edifice that was built supposed to be the pride of a nation is now completely collapsed uh decrepit and totally abandoned it's in a shocking state of disrepair if you did watch that report there was a part where I showed the discoloration between uh on the wall showing just how high tunnel used to be flooded yes and 10 years ago when I went there the tel it was flooded head high you would need scuba divers to get to the dressing rooms that was How deep the water was and nothing has really changed it's in actually worst state of repair T that was very interesting because in my mind I'm like I've never seen flooding around that area you know around the stadium axis close to Jo and Cay in the other end so how did water sorry this is me and my brain and asking why but how did water get in there all the way to that level that it was almost such your waist length just shows you the poor state of um the poor State it's in the drains are completely blocked MH uh water doesn't um find its level as supposed to water doesn't drain as supposed to so which means that a lot of issues whether electrical Plum don't even talk about electrical the stadium itself was disconnected from the National Grid years ago so if you need to do anything on the stadium you need to bring your own power generating set um all the seats are gone the roof is gone everything has completely collapsed let me help you there Judith regarding that now the stadium is built in such a way that there are underground sections actually and um it's not supposed to let water in in the first place how water gets in however beats me but if water can get in you suppose that there should be a way to get it out but there's no no way there's no like to even pump the water like has just said however my question now is regarding the use of the stadium is there nothing happening there because if there's nothing happening at the stadium then you could think maybe that's why it's in a state of disrepair there's no activity for many years perhaps maybe they has been no activity and there's no need to keep it in in a good State no need to repair it anyway so uh let's just let the roller skaters and bikers just play around the periphery and you know nothing happens here could that be why is in that state no that's not why it's not in that state it's in that state because it has been completely nected and abandoned monies are always um all allocated to the repair and upkeep and refurbishment of s there's a director directorate of there's a subsection of the ministry of Sports Development that has to do with s development and maintenance so they do get money to um take care of these stadiums the honest truth is the activities do go there do go on in the when I went there on that day I did the report it was actually um a football competition going on was a private um competition and they had paid for the use of that Stadium who they paid to I don't know how much they paid they refused to disclose but someone was collecting money for the use of that Stadium that's fine by me but the question is what do they do with this money and is the the service that being rendered is it commensurate to the state of the stadium it's in a shocking state of disrepair there were there were virtual forests growing in the stands you know it's that bad don't even talk about the toilets don't don't don't even ask me about the toilets you said it was neglected and it wasn't a case of it not being in use but a total neglect besides that factor what other thing do you think contributed to the total decimation of a of a national edifice edifice like that the honest truth is that we have a shocking understanding of what it takes to build and maintain public facilities we do not understand how it is done and this is simply not a legal thing even the Abuja National Stadium which I that in the report the the that stadium has not passed a FIFA a CF uh a CF test for the use of that stadium in 2 years the state of the track would never be used it can never be used for any domestic or International competition basically the same naal St TR then well there are a few stadiums around Nigeria very few very very few that are well maintained like the one in uo that is because the state government has an ongoing contract with uh an international construction company for annual maintenance now some people say that these stadiums should be concessioned out to you know private entities for them to maintain but I dare say there there are some stadiums in this country that are maintained by state governments and are still in a good state of repair one of them in the S stadium in Benin which is managed uh I I think the current chairman of the hello State Sports commission is the former uh former Olympian Yu Ali M that stadium is one of the neatest I've ever seen if you drop a a piece of paper on the floor within 2 minutes is swept up it is cleaned at least five times a day the pit is in excellent condition the toilet are servable how much use it is still in use it is still how much use it used virtually every week because it is the home it is the home ground of Bendel Insurance football club so there is where you see that's where I was going regarding that first question I asked you how much activities goes on in there I mean our Sports generally if you take a look at our Sports M athletes Judith they don't train at the they train on top of um what's that bridge the one next to the National Stadium National Theater e Bridge no no Bridge there I see athletes running back and forth they don't use these facilities that's the thing they can't use them because they're not in a good state of repair so which comes first chicken or the egg you have to fix these facilities before they can be that's a silly question actually that's the honest truth you have to you have to fix these stadiums these facilities before I mean Nigeria went to the Olympic Games came back just a few weeks ago without so much as a plastic mug yes or a toothpick that is shocking for a nation of over 200 million strong athletic people and nobody no nobody a diaspora Nigerians or Nigerians or individuals of Nigerian descent who went to the Olympics competed on different a different country and won medals for the honest truth is that Stadium needs to be fixed really needs to be fixed what would it take to fix it what would it take to restore its to restore the glory it and bring it its past Glory interestingly the former minister of Sports Development sonar said that this Stadium would need 21 billion Nira to fix that is that is a drop of water that is basically $13 million to refurbish the uh the Felix B stadium that was used in Koda for the last afcon it took 84.4 million and that's a stadium that was in a really good state of repair all right to fix this one you would need nothing less than $200 or $250 million can we afford that as a nation we can't because we have other pressing National so what does that say about the stadium what does that say about sports itself because like you said what does even say about the budget that is been channeled into that into sports for Sports Development and maintainance it is not enough how much has been how how much has been budgeted every every year well um I'm sure if you if you can use the Freedom of Information um bill if you can test it they might give it to you but I do know that the last Olympic Games and Par Olympic Games they budgeted a total of uh 12 billion Nara now 9 billion for the Olympians 3 billion for the par Olympians that's unfair they have more medals than the Olympians and well to be honest that's even a drop of water 9 billion 9 billion Nira is $5 million people are spending South Africa spent $40 million just to send their team to the Olympics and we're spending $5 million to send a team Nigeria we don't spend nearly enough on Sports Development we don't spend nearly enough on facility development we don't spend nearly enough on anything so the question is where does the money go to the honest truth is we do not understand the place of sports in developing remolding reshaping re-engineering any society and what is that is it because we don't see it as priority or important look it's it's a mental it's a mental thing so when you say they're playing a game as far as they're concerned it's play play yeah is nothing serious but they don't think of the economic value the anciliary activties that go around that stadium is probably one of the best SED stadiums anywhere in this world it is equidistant between the island and the mainland probably 10 minutes or 15 minutes away from the International Airport a range wide range of facilities well served by public utilities public transportation networks and so on but and I'm talking about the mean itself you should see the the Indoor Sport as well you see they're doing UFC um UFC um events all across the all across the world that's that can never host a UFC events you are seeing basketball league Africa and NBA Africa um programs that place will never host that kind of event why because it's in a shocking state of repair you paint a very bad picture and if you're telling me as a wor trust me all I'm simply going to say is just pull the plug but we can't do that as a nation so what do we do what suggestions do you have for the sports Ministry the government in fact well it's a case of um priorities then also finding those who are really willing to invest in sports as they should I do believe a philanthropist s took it upon himself to refurbished that Stadium a few years ago he did his best I mean surprisingly the only good thing about that Stadium the edifice is the track the tatan track it's relatively brand new but in contrast to everything else from the lighting I mean the one of the fla lights collapsed last year thankfully it didn't kill anyone but it just shows you just how bad it is how many times have you heard of a a flood light collaps in anywh it doesn't happen because everybody maintains it so in order for the remaining three not to collapse it removed the remaining three the track the tatan track is the only thing that is working he also fixed the pitch as well but this pitch is now back into a total shambolic state of repair and when you stand there and look at it this is the venue of the final of the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations which Nigeria won this is the venue of the 2,000 Africa Cup of Nations where Nigeria lost to Cameroon this is the venue of the father of the fifa2 World Cup in 1999 this is the venue of countless major sporting moments historic moments fa C finals athletics events and it's been left to rot it simply goes to what we said the labors of Our Heroes P shall never be in vain you look at the National Stadium they've not let it be in vain they've actually pretty much toss it out the window I hate to break it to you but we changed the national anthem I don't know why it's Nigeria healthy and it's so perfect for this but but something happened with the National Theater recently came in and they refurbished it's in a very good state do you suggest that for the National Stadium or maybe even privatization ABS P PP public private partnership would that work that would that would work because and as you're saying this let me remind you of dangote and n npcl and they divesture of how many percent of their Investments true so as we're saying PPP and saying that we want a public private partnership and hopefully it will work we the government sit back and let it come to fruition no it won't the honest truth is they have tried many times to either sell the National Stadium or concession it it has always been shredded in controversy or secrecy for some reason some people alive don't want the stadium to to be resuscitated and it's simple it's uh it's goes back to I think it's Swahili proverb that when something dies on the Savannah that is when you see eers of Kon that's when you see hyenas you see vultures you see because they feed fat on those kind of states of disrepair and the way this National cem is now a lot of people are profiting of the existence of that disp which is surprising because they could earn 10 times more are you acting now you acting like you're not in I must say this your your use of oximoron is just fantastic he said he found forests around the S sitting area St scuba up and then you can find crocodiles but you can find the report a special report on the National Stadium Sur on YouTube it's a 5 minutes long Expose and you can see the buls there on your screen go watch it Sund did a fantastic job in profiling uh that Monumental edifice that is supposed to be part of our thank you very much tundy and yes I have started gyming now so we'll be competing very soon thank you very byebye [Music]