Duro Ikhazuagbe
The ongoing concession plans for the 52-year-old National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, is creating uproar in sports circles in the country with most informed stakeholders insisting that the process lacks transparency.
The now dilapidated edifice was built by the General Yakubu Gowon administration in 1972 to host the 2nd All Africa Games a year later.
The Sports-city as the facility was called was Green Eagles (later Super Eagles) fortress dreaded by several African teams. It also hosted the two AFCON finals hosted by Nigeria in 1980 and 2000.
However, it lost its allure following years of lack of maintenance and subsequently abandoned.
Attempts by the last Sports Minister Sunday Dare to revive the facility through getting Premier Lotto entrepreneur, Chief Adebutu Kessington, to adopt it was limited only to resurfacing the playing turf. Its dilapidated terraces and filthy surroundings made it impossible for any meaningful sporting activities to return to the place.
But officials of the Federal Ministry of Sports Development and those appointed by the Federal Government for a Public-Private Partnership initiative,
have been accused of not going about the task with transparency. There are talks of racketeering in high places.
Now, genuine stakeholders in the country’s football are calling on the Federal Government to renovate the facility and put it back into good use again.
An aggrieved former Super Eagles player told THISDAY that he was shocked to learn that the bidding process has been concluded with their preferred candidate without public knowledge
“Where is such thing done anywhere in civilized world?” queried the ex international.
“When Late last year officials of the Sports Ministry went about taking inventory, we knew something was fishing. Now, they are about to announce their preferred bidder to take over the facility. Why for God’s sake the Tinubu Administration cannot revive this National Stadium as a legacy for teeming sports men and women in Lagos and the rest of the country to use?”
These stakeholders decry the piecemeal decimating of the facilities to different business operators, with some of them currently operating while others have been shunned with low patronage.
According to a former Chairman of Lagos SWAN, Fred Edoreh, “In as much as we say that the FG has shown lack of capacity to manage the facility, can we just ride on that justification to have them do the concession in a very secretive manner, in a manner that is not transparent and the people involved unknown?
“We want to bring in new private investors, but some have been there before and have been keeping the place alive, yet they are not part of your concession. If they are not part of it, what happens to them? This calls for serious probe, where are we going, what is the objective?
“Everything is going on so secretively and the new (sports) minister says he has come to carry on from where the old minister stopped. What exactly did they do, where did they do it and who are those involved? Do they have the capacity to manage the stadium? Have they done this before? These are very relevant questions because I think the public should know, it’s our asset. Power is good, yes they are in power, but at least they are reporting to the people. We are at a loss at what’s happening?” concludes the former chief of sports journalists in Lagos State.
