The Magnificent Otunba Dipo Dina Stadium left to rot

Posted : 26 July 2023

When the administration of the then Otunba Gbenga Daniels took over in May 29, 2003, part of the promises was to improve on the socio infrastructural facilities which included sports infrastructure.

On the heels on this, Otunba Gbenga Daniel announced that his administration would commence a radical provision of sports infrastructure which included building of stadium across the senatorial district of the state.

The government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel therefore settled for an open ground where locals assemble to entertain themselves with football action on the outskirts of Ijebu Ode for the location of the then stadium known as Gateway Stadium, Ijebu Ode.

Looking back in the record books, Ogun State before 2011 lacked viable sporting infrastructure, in spite of the fact that its boast of the largest landmass among the six Southwest states as Ogun State can only boast of one stadium, located in the Capital city, Abeokuta.

The ever increasing need for more sport infrastructure had failed to move the previous administration before Gbenga Daniel and spur them to provide more infrastructure untill the government gave an audacious step not to only add one to the existing stadium in Abeokuta, but three stadia.

The Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration of Ogun State, not only proposed that three stadia were built, he followed it up and made sure that the stadia were completed on time to boost sporting activities in the state.

Further to this, the government also ordered massive renovation of the existing MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The three stadia newly built are the Gateway International Stadium, Ijebu-Ode but was later renamed Dipo Dina Stadium by Ibikunle Amosun, the APC governor of the State. Others are Gateway International Stadium in Sagamu and Ilaro, respectively.

The stadia built were tastly furnished with minimum standard to promote sports activities and possibly take away the youths from all forms of social vices by getting them engaged in sporting events.

The stadia, according to the government were also intended to create jobs for the citizenry as they turned out with good lockup shops adjourning the stadium to turn them to be a beehive of commercial activity, which in turn improved on the resources base of the state.

The Gateway International Stadium was built as a multi-purpose stadium on the outskirts of Ijebu-Ode while it is designed to be used mostly for football matches and to complement as a training ground for some football teams.

The stadium has a capacity to seat 20,000 people and was renovated for the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup”.

The provision of these stadia especially the Gateway International Stadium, Ijebu Ode by Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration, did fulfill its mandate as the stadium almost immediately boosted Ogun State’s chance of earning the hosting right of the National Sports Festival in 2006 which arguably remains the best ever with a yield of about N92m profit margin. Towards 2009.

The facilities at the Gateway International Stadium Ijebu-Ode could match that of any stadium in the world as it became one of the best Stadia with eye catching facilities in the country to curry the FIFA’s approval as one of the venues chosen to host matches for the FIFA World U-17 Football tournament hosted by Nigeria.

The synthetic pitch was clearly laid to taste, while the red tartan track was well laid.

Aside this, the terraces of Otunba Dipo Dina Stadium were neatly fitted with different coloured plastic seats segmenting the sitting arrangement with well structured columns that separate each with exit lobbies.

The dressing rooms and Commentary box are also built with state of the art equipment.

During the U-17 World Cup in Ijebu-Ode, perhaps, no city and state exemplified the carnival, spectacle and many gains of the matches that held inside the magnificent Stadium.

The spectators were full of praise to the government for providing such classic structure.

However, the U-17 World Cup in Ijebu-Ode also increased the pace of economic activities and trade heightened, especially those with entertainment content.

On the day of the first match, the fear of FIFA that the fans would not come in large numbers as experienced in other centres disappeared hours before the commencement of the match between USA and UAE. Ogun people trooped out en masse – the fans, old and young, workers, traditional rulers, indeed, from all works of life came to witness the final admission of Ogun State into the rank of world comity of sports.

The same spectacle was repeated during the second-round match between regional foes Argentina and Colombia on November 4, 2009. And when Switzerland, the eventual winners of the tournament, took on Italy in a quarter-final match at the same venue, even the skeptic agreed with the admirers that PDP administration ably led by Otunba Gbenga Daniel had successfully used sport as a tool for development.

In order to ensure the maintenance of the stadium, Otunba Gbenga Daniel decided to name the stadium after respectable and rich Ogun State indigenes, who will be made to put down huge sums that could be put in fixed deposits and the interest on it used to maintain the stadium.

Then, the Gateway International Stadium was renamed after a telecommunications and billionaire oil magnate, Otunba Mike Adenuga.

This initiative immediately yielded positive impact and guaranteed the sponsoring of the state football team – Gateway FC by Mike Adenuga.

The oil magnate was made to take up the maintenance of the stadium from the state government and he also paid the Ogun State government for naming the stadium after him.

However, with the incoming of a subsequent administration, the stadium began to suffer neglect as sporting activities began to dwindle.

The subsequent administration pay no serious attention to the special needs of sport or its development and the stadium was thereafter used sparingly, yet, the usage was not optimal or have any economic advantage to properly take care of its cost of maintenance, howbeit, it was also remaned by the administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

The stadium was renamed in 2011 after Otunba Dipo Dina, an assassinated Ijebu politician.

After Senator Ibikunle Amosun was sworn in as the new Governor of Ogun State. One of the highpoints of his inaugural speech was the renaming of the Gateway International Stadium after the Late Otunba Dipo Dina, the leading gubernatorial aspirant on the platform under Action Congress (AC) who was murdered the previous year.

That act of Senator Amosun was ostensibly to honour the late politician who happened to be the major obstacle to the governor’s emergence as the AC standard-bearer.

Otunba Dipo Dina Stadium in Ijebu-Ode is now a shadow of its former self, the sorry state of the stadium will make an average sport lover in Nigeria be in tears.

The stadium complex no longer has a roof as most of the roof part has been blowned away by storm.

The part of the roof being thrown off by wind storm have yet to be replaced, while if the stadium gets lucky to get a tournament and it rains, all the spectators are usually drenched.

Many Ijebu-Ode indigenes have been calling on all rich Ijebu-Ode indigenes, to come to the rescue of the Ogun State Government and help renovate the stadium which has become a shadow of itself, owing to neglect by the immediate past administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

The incumbent Gov. Dapo Abiodun needed to put politics aside and save the multi-billion naira stadium complex from further detoriation.

The stadium is in need of emergency repairs especially the terraces that have been washed off by the harsh weather and other environmental factors.

A look at the stadium can only translate to a neglected arena overgrown with weeds as most of the facilities have become run down and non-functional.

The walls of the stadium need urgent repainting and the entire arena in a state of total mess. Far from being a beehive of activity for Sports; the stadium has been reduced to a mere drinking spot for Ijebu-Ode indigenes every evening. Parties and reception are also held there.

The sight of a once magnificent and eye-catching edifice has absolutely turned to an eyesore, The covered terrace has become so dilapidated that rain falls freely on the spectators.

The VIP pavilion has become like an oven because the air conditioners have been bad. Meanwhile the power supply to the stadium may soon be cut off due to increasing debt.

Most of the plastic seats on the terrace have been broken while some others have been removed. The ones that are adorned with foam have become so tattered that it would take a second thought for one to sit on it if one doesn’t want to be a bug carrier to one’s household.

As a clarion call, we join in the voices of the sports lovers in Ogun State in appealing to the Ogun State government to help save the stadium and restore it to its former glory.

"Our present governor is an Ijebu man, but from Ijebu Remo, yet we share the same progenitor, so this appeal goes directly to him as one of the illustrious sons of the soil for an intervention on Otunba Dipo Dina Stadium," an indigene, Charles Akindiya, appealed in a chat with Africa Sport Network (ASN).

The Magnificent Otunba Dipo Dina Stadium left to rot

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