"I have been to Rio de Janeiro to see the Maracana stadium sitting 250, 000 fans then. I’ve also been to Niger and the Stade Seyni Kountche is a fantastic stadium. But I have not seen anything special about our sports development as far as infrastructure is concerned,” veteran sports journalist, Segun Adenuga, summed up his assessment of sports in Nigeria, 54 years after the country gained independence from the British.
Indeed the poor state of the country’s sports facilities in the last 54 years have been worrisome despite the individual brilliance of the sportsmen and women. Even the once functional facilities like the Naitonal Stadium, Lagos, have been converted to non-sporting activities.
“It gives me a lot of worries because a National Stadium (Lagos) shouldn’t be a place for worship, where Christians and muslims congregate and pray. It’s a sports edifice built for that purpose and whoever is encouraging that should stop that. I am not antagonising any religion but we should do what is expected of us. You won’t see anybody preaching at the Wembley stadium,” Adenuga, a former reporter with The PUNCH, added.
“We need to have sports facilities. Samuel Ogbemudia did something with Afuze and he is still alive. Somebody should go to Ogbemudia and learn a lesson from him irrespective of his political affiliation. I think a lot is lacking and it is a societal malady.”
Nigeria was touted to become a global powerhouse as far as sports was concerned, when the country gained independence in 1960. What with the performances of the likes of long jumper Emmanuel Ifeajuna, who became the first Black African to win a gold medal at an international sports event when he won the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
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