Lagos National Stadium in death throes, gasps for elixir of life

When the immediate past Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, assumed office last year, he promised to do everything within his powers to resuscitate the National Stadium, Lagos, which was once acknowledged as the best sporting facility in Sub-Saharan Africa. He said that if it meant bringing down the whole structure to rebuild it, he would do that to ensure that Nigeria has a befitting sports facility like most developed countries of the world. However, a year after that pronouncement, CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that the facility has deteriorated such that some of the revamped parts have started disintegrating again.

The National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, is collapsing. The edifice, acclaimed as the best sporting facility in Sub-Sahara Africa when it was opened for the 1973 African Games in 1972, is gradually disintegrating with some of its parts falling apart, and others showing signs of giving up.

Almost one year after the immediate past Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, said that his ministry would look for ways to restore the stadium to its pride of place as one of Africa’s most reverred sporting arenas, the structure has deteriorated to the extent that if nothing urgent is done to halt the decay, the damage to the structure could be such that the government would find it difficult to muster the resources to repair.

Worst still, some parts of the structure resuscitated through a private sector partnership have started giving way as well. These include the tartan track and the football pitch inside the main bowl.

When a former Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, assumed office in 2019, one of his major projects was getting the National Stadium, Lagos, and the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, back into shape to host national