Abuja National Stadium, a shame and national disaster

For a very long time i have been wondering why the Super Eagles go to Calabar or other State’s stadium to play matches instead of the Abuja National Stadium that one time took the shout of the nation, until last weekend. Much curiosity made me took a walk down the Stadium to find out for myself what the issue is. Allow me to share with you my findings.
The surroundings were clogged with untrimmed grasses, pure water sachets were every where, used toilet papers fly around the vicinity, dead leafs and unplanned trees that grew on their own is everywhere. In one sentence, the surrounding is a total mess.

Walking past the dirts at the stadiums vicinity while making sure i don’t step on any funny substance, led me through to the inner court of the stadium. Of all the madness and weird things i saw at the stadiums’ vicinity, that of the inner court took the cake. The stadium is in a very shabby state, the grasses at the pitch-center is four feet tall, the general section as well as the VIP section are filled with sands and tall grasses, green coloration occupied the entire chairs etc.

The poor state of the National Stadium was the reason ARSENAL never came down to play the football match they already agreed to. Who would blame them for refusing to, i mean, who wants to play ball in a stadium filled with grasses, baby trees and insect occupied seats? A stadium where Ggagi people set traps to capture rats and other rodents. Even amateurs wouldn’t want that, let alone superstars. The maintenance culture of the Nigerian government is immeasurably one of the worlds worst maintenance culture as far as history can tell. No wonder most things that belongs to the government are been privatized.

This is a stadium that the government spent billions of naira on, a project that removed lots of money from the pockets of ordinary Nigerians, an infrastructure the then President called a monument of developmental attention in the history of the country. Today, that “MONUMENT” is threatened.

With the dilapidated state of infrastructure in the country, poor management culture and the high level corruption business going on today, Nigeria have a long way to go.