By Gbolahan Ogunmuyiwa.
When a foundation is faulty, building efforts will surely end in ruins and misadventures.
Nigeria’s dwindling fortunes go beyond football and sports generally. It’s a structural defect.
Tuesday 29 March, 2022 was a sunny day in the Federal Capital Territory. Like every other keen followers of international football, I determined to mobilise everyone around me to come to the Abuja stadium. Despite having a serious program in the office that same afternoon, I called up my friends at the Nigeria Football Federation Headquarters to reserve some tickets for me. Luckily, one of the senior Executives called me to come for two match tickets before noon that day.
Let’s leave the stories and narrow down on what I saw. I will start with the positive side.
- Security measures (against possible terrorism or violent groups) was great. The Security Architecture didn’t underestimate possible threats from terrorists.
- Vehicular traffic stress around the Federal Capital Territory was eased due to the 1pm work closing order to Civil Servants
- Free ride (one way) arrangements for fans from Abuja suburbs to the match venue.
- The sea of cars (about 500) parked along all highways surrounding the stadium suggested the high level of attendance by middle class and government functionaries.
AREAS OF POOR RATING
- Crowd (Spectators) Management. No manpower to regulate movements at the venue.
- Stadium post match human traffic management. The estimated 80,000 crowd at the match venue took to trekking for kilometres, thereby creating secondary social inconvenience.
- Zero lighting at the entire MKO Abiola National Stadium complex. Even the roads around the entire stadium were without light.
- The free tickets given by the government to some officers ended up being hoarded for sale.
- The free ride for fans could have been made 2-way. Dedicated buses would have been stationed about 1km from the match venue to return fans to strategic points in the city where they could find their ways home easily.
- There is always a maximum capacity strength of every structure. The gates should have been closed when the 60,000 capacity seats were occupied, instead of allowing the extra 20,000 as we saw during the Nigeria-Ghana final round match.
- A mega screen should have been created outside for fans outside the mainbowl to view the live match. This would reduce the pressure inside.
- Toilets and sanitary facilities should be provided. The current situation at the stadium encourages open defecation.
- Safety and Security require separate approaches. The government worked more on security and did little or nothing about safety. For instance, there should be presence of fire-fighting trucks and multiple ambulances, going by the number of participants at the venue.
- The MKO Abiola National Stadium Abuja has a large space that could be put into economic use instead of cattle grazing as we always see. The abandoned multi-room Hostel facility is one of the many projects that could be executed through PPP.
The edifice is fast deteriorating because the Federal government underutilise its capacity.
CONCLUSION
For the match itself, I personally feel that the coaching crew didn’t do enough. Nigeria didn’t put effort to win the first leg in Ghana. With the way the Super Eagles played in Kumasi, they were okay with the goalless draw. Almost everyone thought that “Away Goal” doesn’t count.
The current Super Eagles Technical Crew missed a critical line. Football is very mathematical and I think the Black Stars Coaching Crew are superior in this.
Hope the same story will not repeat itself at 2024 Olympics, especially the football qualifiers.
