The National Stadium, Abuja caught the attention of the world when the edifice hosted the 8th All Africa Games 2003 (COJA) with an imposing state of the art facilities that can boast of being among the best in Africa and any part of the world
.
Thirteen years after the Games, the structures built during the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the tune of $300 million are fast degenerating with some of the roof tops blown away by winds while other structures have caved in due to neglect.
Abandoned edifice
The most dilapidated structure is a 240-room hotel facility with a Conference Centre that have been overgrown by weeds and taken over by rodents. The large structure is now inhabited by some poor Nigerians who use it as their shelter in the face of lack of accommodation in the city.
The herdsmen too are not left out of the show as they choose the expansive green areas around the stadium complex as grazing fields for their cattle, The stadium hardly hosts events since most of the sports federations took them outside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where they would enjoy corporate sponsorships due to lack of funds.
Often times, the main bowl serves as a venue for religious and cultural activities which pay a little or nothing in return. Unlike the entertainment and social recreation venues, social functions such as Interhouse sports and games amongst schools and other institutions which generate revenue for the National Stadium in Lagos, the reverse is the case in Abuja which groans under lack of fund for maintenance.
Apart from few recreational games of tennis, badminton, swimming, gymnastics and cricket that are held at the Package B, the Stadium is more or less a grave yard, particularly on weekends.
The Package B with vast acres of land wasting away would have been turned into Housing Estates if the authority has taken advantage of it. A first time visitor to the Package B which is divided from Package with an overhead bridge that runs across the City Gate, will see nature at its best with the different kinds of animals that stroll through in the vast land around a little stream.
Recent movement of the staff of the scrapped National Sports Commission (NSC) back to the Ministry of Youth and Sports by the minister, Solomon Dalung, has not helped matters with the facilities suffering neglect.
Herdsmen and insecurity
The herdsmen who usually invade the stadium in groups to feed their cattle some times overwhelm the stadium security officials who tried to stop them from their activities, especially at the Package B of the stadium.
“It has been a routine for these herdsmen to herd their cows to this place for grazing, especially in the last one year. They invade the stadium at will and it seems nobody is ready to stop or caution them,” said a security official attached to the stadium. When our correspondent sought the view of the stadium manager, Mr. Sati Mbok, he said that the management has been making frantic efforts to stop the herdsmen, but they have rather continued to increase in their numbers.
Lack of maintenance
A visit to the stadium by Inside Abuja last week was revealing. At the Package B of the complex, one was greeted with bushy outlay that leaves one wondering if the entrance is a disused village path.
As if that was not enough, the two Indoor Sports Halls of the stadium have not witnessed any competition that could attract just more than the participating athletes and their officials in a long while. The surrounding of the complex is overgrown with weeds and a corner of the entrance now serves as a waste dumpsite, a situation that has turned that section of the complex into a filthy zone.
Daily experience of workers in the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) and the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVF), whose offices are situated at the Indoor Hall, is better imagined. Further down the trail, is the Olympic-sized swimming pool, which has become a home for tadpoles, toads and frogs.
A staffer at the complex, when asked why the pool was left unattended, jokingly said that the pool was only fit for a ‘point and kill’ fish farm. Another staffer, who would not want to be quoted, however, added that the water in the pool was not dirty, but that it was the basement of the pool that had accumulated much dirt, which left the pool polluted.
“The pool is being maintained by the federation that has not got subvention for a long time now. However, what you see now will soon be a thing of the past, as the pools are being worked on. The machines that pump water into it are being serviced and where necessary, are being replaced,” he said.
“The painting of the structure will commence soon. Cleaning the swimming pools and its diving slabs may cost nothing less than half a million naira and the cleaning exercise has to be done on a regular basis, but the funds are not there.
“It is for this reason that we are calling on members of the public to come and patronise the facility so that we can have returns to maintain the place. The sports ministry is not always forthcoming when it comes to releasing funds for facility maintenance,” the staffer added. The engine room to the pools are equally not an encouraging site.
Meanwhile, down the same route are the Tennis Courts for the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF). There, the canopies covering the seating areas of the centre courts have been uprooted. Although more courts have been added to the ones that were used for the All Africa Games back in 2003, most of the new ones are already showing signs of disrepair.
Some parts of the arena are being threatened by erosion. The fence around the courts towards the generating room is crumbled, such that it could be hazardous going after any ball that strays out of the playing area towards the fence. The outdoor courts for basketball are far from being encouraging, as most of the backboards are in bad state. The rims in some of them are hanging precariously, ready to fall any moment.
Moreover, that area is also overgrown with weeds, even as a part of the area has been converted to farmland. When our correspondent spoke to a woman and her child who were harvesting millet on the ‘farmland in the complex’, the woman said: “My husband works here (at the stadium) as a security man and since we are here with him, we farm here to grow what we eat.
The land is fertile.” At the far end of the Package B, is the National Institute for Sports (NIS), which has to itself a large expanse of land mostly serving as farmland by these illegal occupants.
The Astroturf for hockey within the Package B remains one of the best on the African continent, but the problem of underutilisation is telling on it. Again, the scorching heat of the sun, which beats it regularly, is fast changing its colour.
It was difficult to have a good look at the scoreboard in this section because the board is partially covered by overgrown weeds, just as some areas around the artificial turfs have different shades of shrubs creeping into the area. Cricketers in Abuja, who see no reason why they should waste a valuable space, have converted the arena that was used by the Baseball Federation during the 2003 All Africa Games to a cricket pitch.
The Velodrome
The most painful site at the Abuja Stadium complex is the main bowl of the velodrome that also houses the cycling arena. Currently, the Nigeria Cycling Federation (NCF), which used to operate from there, has been sent packing and made to carry out its business from the Package B area. A look around the velodrome leaves one totally dejected, as the facility has been turned into a glorified carpenter’s workshop.
However, taking a look inside the complex leaves one wondering if the velodrome would ever come alive again. Investigations have it that it has in the past been put to use for exhibitions, concerts and all manner of events such that the real purpose for which it was constructed is far from being achieved. Planks of various sizes are littered all over the racing tracks as well as around the seating area.
There were woods everywhere, but no furniture maker in sight. A closer peep revealed that there were thousands of gas cylinders and cooking stoves in the main bowl of the velodrome. Inside Abuja learnt that the items were brought there by a political party during the last general elections.
According to a security guard at the complex, the items were supposed to had been distributed to the supporters of an unnamed political party but was later suspended just before the elections were concluded On security outlay, the Package B arena is almost a free zone to walk into.
Aside the security men at the main entrance, who check vehicles as they drive out, there was no sign of security inside the arena. For the two occasions our correspondent were at the Package B, despite arriving the arena in the early hours of the morning and staying till late afternoon, nobody acted as a security man in that area of the stadium complex.
Power Cuts
The NSC was at time indebted to PHCN to the tune of millions of naira which resulted in the offices relying on generating sets to work.
The sports minister on assumption of office pointed out the inability of successive administrators to maintain the structures due to lack of continuity.
He was of the opinion that in line with the change mantra of the present administration, he will not embark on any elephant project while the existing ones continue to suffer neglect pointing out that all the government owned stadia facilities are near collapse and need urgent turn around maintenance and renovation.
Dalung maintained that as a Nigerian and as an athlete who had once competed at the national stadium in Lagos, he felt pained to see what has become the fate of the old national stadium and have decided to pay more attention to bring it and others alike back to their old glory instead of embarking on projects he could not complete due to the short tenure of ministerial appointees and lack of continuity that has become the bane of successive governments.
While blaming the rot in our national monuments on the insensitivity of past leaders, Dalung also blamed the commercialisation of such venture without a corresponding utilisation of accruing resource to their maintenance. Another reason for such decay in the system, Dalung pointed out was the lack of public private partnership in the development of sports and sporting facilities.
While promising to engage the private sector in his desire to see the Lagos national stadium regain its old centre of attraction, Dalung said government alone cannot continue to fund sports while allowing multinational corporations in the country not to live up to their social responsibilities to the nation.
Utilisation options
The issue of non-public/private partnership in the development of sports therefore brings us to the issue of the edifice called the Abuja National Stadium.
Former Director General of NSC, Dr. Amos Adamu, has advised the government to privatise the Abuja stadium immediately after the 2003 All-Africa Games in order to maintain its standards and avoid the vandalism of facilities. The Federal Government who owns 100 per cent equity on the property at the moment, has faced a lot of antagonism both locally and internationally.
The average estimate for annual maintenance since its inauguration runs into millions of naira and government has not been able to provide it in its yearly budget. The government has been seeking options for privatisation of the facility.
Through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the Federal Government intends to grant a concession to a sole concessionaire who will enter into an investment commitment, and essentially operate the stadium with a primary goal of generating revenue from the proceeds of sporting events, concerts, religious activities, corporate sponsorship, corporate advertising and other promotional activities.
The concessionaire has the choice of assuming the role of Facility Manager for the property encompassed in the National Stadium and the Indoor Sports Complex, or employ a firm to perform the task. The BPE will act as the monitor in the arrangement.
source NEW TELEGRAPH
Post A Comment:
0 comments:
Post a Comment