MKO Abiola Stadium Abuja: A $360 million sports facility with less activities

The question that still persists on the lips of many pundits, commentators, athletes and other stakeholders is why a stadium that cost a whooping $360 million is yet to fulfil its potential.

A sporting infrastructure such as the MKO Abiola Stadium Abuja should not be rotting away, instead it should be a beehive of sporting activities and of course, the nation’s sporting melting pot. 

The Federal Government of Nigeria of the civilian administration of Olusegun Obasanjo approved the contract for the construction of the National Stadium complex and Games Village on July 18 2000, with a speed of light, 2003, barely three years after Nigeria returned to democracy (1999) the government deemed it fit to bestow upon the country a befitting 60,000-capacity stadium in Abuja named as “National Stadium, Abuja”. 

The then Abuja National Stadium now MKO Abiola Stadium is reputably one of the 5000 most expensive stadiums ever built, and many heaved a sign of relief that a stadium befitting the status of Nigeria has finally been commissioned.

For the first time in the world, the ringbeam of the stadium, MKO Abiola's roof structure, was made of concrete. The roof structure itself is a cable construction with a weight of 800 tons carrying a 28.000 m2 membrane.

There were many expectations from the then Abuja National Stadium, renamed after an industrialist, MKO Abiola, which is a front line Pillar of Sports not only in Nigeria, but in Africa.

Infact, the late MKO Abiola was one of the owners of indigenous clubsides that ever won the domestic cup in Nigeria, besides his Philanthropist gesture to most of the sport cadres in Nigeria; Football, Basketball, Handball, Volleyball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Squash among others that are beneficiaries of the soft spoken billionaire's largeese.

It is true that there were two national stada in Nigeria as at the time MKO Abiola Stadium was commissioned, yet, the one in Lagos has been on the decline towards abandonment. In this stead, the completion of the National Stadium, Abuja now Moshood Abiola, Abuja, is such a relief to the sports cult.

MKO Abiola stadium, according to plan, was built with the vision and strategic plans to create and organise activities that will increase the Abuja fans’ emotional demands and revenue generation for Nigeria.

The national sporting monument was built in exemplary fashion typical of everything, for a one-stop sporting village co-existing under one roof.

The $360 million MKO Abiola Stadium upon commission, was perfectly-built as a top-notch edifice worthy of a national reference.

MKO Abiola Stadium was designed and constructed by German construction firm, Schlaich Bergermann & Partners, and the stadium, as an architectural masterpiece, was provided with state-of-the-art facilities.

The stadium partitioned into Package A and B, lived up to the expectations upon inception in October by hosting the 2003 8th All Africa Games (COJA).

Facilities in the stadium include: 60,491 capacity covered main bowl, an arc-shaped Velodrome, a state-of-the-art Presidential suite and viewing area and other 56 corporate suites.

Outside the arena are: Post offices, banks, shops and kiosks for snacks and other media facilities, two scoreboards and floodlights and outside the arena is a Helipad, a 4,000 vehicle capacity public parking lot, 400 capacity VIP car park and an artificial lake.
 
The adjourning features include; 3,000-capacity indoor sports hall, 2,000 capacity gymnastic hall, 2,000 capacity swimming pool, Tennis courts, 3,000 capacity hockey stadium with Baseball and softball complex all included in the frame.

Moshood Abiola National Stadium by all standards is in fufillment of the requirements of the International safety standards; it is equipped with emergency service units, closed circuit security cameras as well as crowd control steel fencing. There are also stand-by fire fighting equipment and metal detectors which have been put in place to avoid any misfortune.

At its inauguration, being a national monument, the Federal Government of Nigeria owned 100% equity on the property but the idea of sole ownership has over the years faced a lot of criticism because it will hinder proper maintenance due to the government's history of abandoning national monuments.

The average estimate for annual maintenance of the stadium after inauguration was put at about $7 million, which many considered high by many standards. 

Sensing the high cost of maintenance, the federal government then began to seek a way of escape through selling of equity shares of the stadium to enable it maintain the facility or an outright privatization through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

The Federal Government of Nigeria under the regime of Goodluck Jonathan showed sincere intention 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 according to blueprint will have a 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, and the Concessionaire will report to the federal government through the BPE.

A minimum tenure of 20 years was recommended, subject to review every five years. Maintenance of the Stadium and its external areas will be the responsibility of the Concessionaire.

Since then, the concession or privatisation of the MKO Abiola Stadium failed to materialise, a resultant effect that has led to the edifice being under-utilized, and fast degenerating into a shadow of itself.

In all ramification, the Abuja Stadium was a landmark beauty to behold, as it is strategically located upon entry into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, perhaps to make a bold statement to residents and new arrivals into the nation’s capital that sports is really a source of happiness to many Nigerians.

The 60,491-seater capacity main bowl and the state-of-the-art indoor games facilities at the Package B axis have successfully hosted national and international sporting events including the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup and many Grade A international friendly games especially involving the Super Eagles.

Many wonder why the magnificent MKO sporting centre cannot continually host sporting activities and why other states that have less international standard facilities have continued to hold international competitions while the stadium lies fallow.

For the records, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, a state-owned sports centre can boast of five to six annual international classics, while MKO Abiola Stadium cannot be proud with one.

Annual International Classics such as Table Tennis and recently, World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender was held in Teslim Balogun Stadium at the expense of MKO Abiola Stadium.

Also Teslim Balogun Stadium plays host to annual Lagos International Squash Classics with the last one in May which attracted athletes from all over the world from 17 countries, yet, Abuja Stadium is begging for local classics.

Next, Lagos will host another classics in Badminton in August, while Abuja is yet to host one, this is of course a bad taste for a multi-purpose stadium like MKO Abiola that has the facilities, but without activities.

It is absurd to wonder how a sporting masterpiece like MKO Abiola Stadium cannot be used optimally, an edifice built as a beautiful sporting structure with all of its world-class facilities, but yet, cannot or failed to generate sporting activities.

While many will argue that the stadium still enjoys some level of patronage, as far as hosting of some sporting events is concerned, yet, MKO Abiola Stadium deserves better in terms of attraction of international matches, sporting events, classics and so on to itself.

After the 2003 All Africa Games, MKO Abiola has yet to host another big event in the ranks of the African Sports fiesta.

Not only that, apart from the dearth of serious sporting activities and the impossibility of hosting any major football competition even a friendly match in the national facility, the structure is now in a state of a near collapse and suffering from worrisome activities of herdsmen, miscreants, vandals, incessant robbery attacks and administrative lapses that have contributed in reducing the stadium to a shadow of itself.

In reality, the lack of serious competitive sporting activities especially at the main bowl, has invoked threats of attacks from dangerous reptiles to the fans arena, while lack of maintenance culture has led to other hostilities equally conspired to cripple activities and reduce the national pride into national embarrassment.

The football turf of the main bowl has over the years of subsequent administration enjoyed unmitigated award of contracts to re-grass, which of course is a conduit pipe for an outflowing corruption within the administration.

Everytime there is a football match in MKO Abiola Stadium, many would cringe at the state of the turf that looks like nothing better than a grazing field for the cattle.

Also, the maintenance of the stadium, which never performed according to installed capacity seems to have become a cash cow to the ministry and other concerned authorities.

In 2013, when the main bowl went completely bad and was abandoned, the then National Sports Commission (NSC) awarded a maintenance contract worth over N96 million (about $600,000) just to re-grass the turf.

However, despite the humongous amount involved in the renovation, the same lack of maintenance culture reared its ugly head again, as the stadium was not even able to host an international friendly scheduled for the main bowl ahead of the Russia 2018 FIFA World due to the unplayable state of the stadium turf.

According to the then Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, the Federal Government would need funds in the neighbourhood of N100 million to N130 million to re-grass the main bowl again just five years after completing the same project.

The endless renovation continued when in September last year, Africa richest man, Aliko Dangote, matched words with action, deploying construction equipment to yet again renovate the stadium in deplorable state as part of the ‘Adoption Policy’ of the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, in an estimated contract sum of $1 million.

Although the completion date was a subject of variations with both the contractors and the ministry, blaming factors, such as hostile weather conditions, importation hitches and other unforeseen natural elements, and other unforeseen circumstances, the stadium finally came alive to host the last must-win World Cup qualifying match between Nigeria and Ghana. The unfortunate game did not go well, and the rest is history.

The constant re-grassing of the stadium is not the only challenge confronting the world-class edifice as creditors some years ago pounced on the ministry over debts owed them.

Specifically, in 2017, there was huge embarrassment at the stadium when three companies forcefully seized property belonging to the Ministry of Sports over a N9.9 million debt. The seized property included three 18-seater buses, one Hilux truck, two automatic changeover generators and other valuables estimated even above the amount of the debt owed them.

The companies had hinged their actions on the lukewarm attitude and lack of commitment of the ministry in responding to the order from the FCT High Court since 2010, which gave judgment that the ministry should pay them the N9.9 million debt.

Aside this, other problems confronting MKO Abiola Stadium is incessant robbery attacks and vandalising of cables.

Due to several years of abandonment of the facilities and the unmanned massive areas of the stadium, both sides of the edifice have continued to be under the mercies of robbers and vandals. Many of the facilities have been vandalised and stolen on many instances without any arrest.

It came to the head in 2016 and 2017 when armed robbers invaded, operated for hours and carted away television sets and other valuables inside the VIP lounge of the main bowl. Lamentably, till date, no serious attempt has been made to either arrest or prosecute the culprits.

Again, sometime in March, 2017, robbers vandalized the three generating sets supplying power to the indoor sports halls at the Package B. They even audaciously returned and carted away another giant generating set inside the indoor basketball hall.

In its defense on why MKO Abiola Stadium has not been attracting patronages especially football, the Nigeria Football Federation said it had to play most national teams’ games outside the Abuja National Stadium due to a lack of facilities there.

NFF Secretary-General Mohammed Sanusi said that the national stadium currently lacks the necessary facilities for the teams to play conveniently.

However, he said some states do indicate their interest in hosting the national teams.

Now, the women’s national teams have taken refuge at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin, while the Super Eagles have been playing their matches at the Uyo Stadium after MKO Abiola Stadium was de-listed by CAF.

Sanusi said, “Some of these states indicated their interest in hosting the teams and that is why they settled there. The Abuja National Stadium is under renovation and so there is no facility for us to play our matches here.

“We have our technical centre here, but there are no dressing rooms. So we are making efforts to see if the dressing rooms can be provided.”

The secretary added that the football house was planning to take the matches of the teams across the country, so that Nigerians can watch their national teams play live.
 
The sports enthusiasts that saw the glory of the sports stadium some years ago have not stopped to condemn its current delapidated condition occasioned by lack of activities.

It is high time Nigeria realised that the greatest asset of its sports development is its real estate and landed sporting structures.

If Nigeria continues to refuse to maintain its sporting structures, it is tantamount to the country destroying its sports development.

While other countries around the world are doing better in relation to maintaining the sports infrastructure, and reaping the benefits, and attracting investment and tourism, Nigeria is losing billions of dollars in revenue because it fails to put its sports infrastructure in good order.

Sports infrastructure that are supposed to constitute national assets have deteriorated because of abandonment and lack of maintenance.

That’s why many of the federal government owned facilities in bad shape cannot attract any good investor.

The government has the responsibility to take up the assignment and do the needful.

It is the duty of government to take up the assignment to do the needful in regards to the national sporting infrastructure that are not optimally in use and see ways at which they can be turned to stadium of delight for activities.

When structures as big as a National Stadium are abandoned, then, it will be prone to attacks by unscrupulous elements that will pilfer away some important components such as power cable, toilet seats and other amenities.

The government of Nigeria need a change of attitude from allowing its sporting infrastructure to be left in waste, deterioration and decay at an alarming rate.

Proper management and maintenance of the sports property is as important as its actual construction since it is vital to the sports economic, historical, social and cultural development of the country.