AMGA 2024 – From zero to hero – General Christopher Musa

By the time you are reading this, the final event at the second African Military Games will be taking place. Soldier-athletes from the over-20 African countries that finally participated will be preparing to return home after the closing ceremonies today that will bring down the curtains on a very successful AMGA 2014.

When the games began on November 18, 2024, only few could have envisaged the level of success it finally attained.

It has been 22 years since the first Games were held, indicating the challenges inherent with hosting. It is not a stroll in the park. It takes courage, resources, determination, commitment and a clear vision.

Since COJA in 2003, the concept of hosting any such continental event is greeted with a stonewall of objections. COJA 2003 was a disaster, the story of squander-mania and financial brigandage, obscene scandals and blatant recklessness, all unmatched in Nigerian sports history.
It is the story of how some persons enriched themselves and impoverished sports and sports development. Their misadventure left carcasses everywhere. The Games Village was sold to cronies, not sports heroes that needed and deserved it. The stadium complex became a shameful White-elephant project that should have been a national monument in the heart of one of the the most idyllic and beautiful capital cities in Africa, but became a dead zone, a beautiful flower idling and wasting away in a desert place.

The entire shenanigans of COJA confronts Nigerians every time they drive into the city of Abuja from the airport – an accursed edifice that could have been the City’s number One tourist destination, a social, cultural, business and entertainment hub that will not sleep 27 hours every day and eight days a week, but is