Looking for a way to cut its losses and still put Nigeria’s prime stadia to optimal efficiency, the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, is set to concession some of them to private investors. The arrangement is expected to start with the national stadia in Abuja and Lagos. “Government cannot maintain those things,” he said. “So, we intend to proceed with the concession process we met on the ground.” But this is not a proposal that should be rushed into.
Obviously, the stadia have been underutilised due to the inefficiency of government. Since the seat of government moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1990, the Federal Government has abandoned the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. Although the facility, opened in 1972, has been generating revenue, it has been denied adequate maintenance, as money generated is forwarded to the national treasury. Facilities for boxing, weightlifting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, basketball, wrestling and volleyball are all decrepit. The main bowl of the stadium, which, in the past, played host to important football matches, including the FIFA World Youth Championships in 1999, and the athletics track are in a squalid state.
Its counterpart in Abuja, opened for the 2003 All Africa Games, is not faring much better. Not even its location in the Federal Capital Territory, where national infrastructure enjoys standard maintenance, has helped the cause of the stadium. The complex has been overgrown with weeds, just as itinerant herdsmen have turned it to their grazing reserve. These are basic things that do not need a concessionaire to fix. If the government, with its omnibus authority, cannot enforce the law against herdsmen, what will a concessionaire do?
The planned concession is not the solution to the problems of the stadia. In fact, it is not every property of the government that should be either concessioned or privatised. For example, the Surulere stadium, because of its accessibility, has proved to be a crucible that has churned out many athletes, who have done the country proud in international engagements. For instance, its knock-up hall, for years, sustained table tennis talents such as Atanda Musa, Sunday Eboh, Segun Toriola, Kasali Lasisi, Olawunmi Majekodunmi, Bose Kaffo and Funke Oshonaike. They all had free access to the hall where they honed their skill. This is what the future generation will be denied once the stadium is concessioned as the concessionaire may not be interested in furthering the interest of sportsmen. What matters to him will be making money. The same goes for track and field athletes, taekwondoists, karatekas, boxers and tennis players, who will miss the training facilities there.
It is also doubtful if any Nigerian company has both the financial outlay and managerial capacity to manage the stadia well. At best, the facilities erected with lots of taxpayers’ money would be converted into a massive event centres, for rent, with scant attention paid to the original purpose the facilities were meant to serve; not even the pitches would be spared. Besides, how much is the government going to benefit financially from such a move?
The implications of a concession are serious. For instance, the national football teams, especially the Super Eagles, will have no stable home ground for their matches. The current culture of the Nigeria Football Federation going round, begging state governments to host their matches, will be further entrenched. In the alternative, each time the national teams have home matches, they would have to hire the stadia from the concessionaires, probably at prohibitive costs. Of course, the rotation of home matches has already been affecting the performance of the Eagles, who hardly have the feeling of playing at home.
Again, the Federal Government will be putting itself in a bind in case of a successful bid to host events such as the World Cup, Commonwealth Games or the Olympics. It means the government would have to re-hire the stadia or build new ones. This is an unwieldy arrangement.
While it is sensible to privatise commercial assets, the case with social infrastructure is different. It is the duty of the government to build and sustain social infrastructure in health, education and sports. Government will have money to spend on these when it stops subsidising strictly business ventures by pulling out of them.
Looking beyond Nigeria, this is what happens in countries such as Brazil and England. In Brazil, the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro is seen as a global icon. Opened in 1950, the second largest stadium in South America is owned and maintained by the Rio State Government. Aside from hosting the 1950 FIFA World Cup final, it also hosted the 2014 World Cup Finals and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games.
Similarly, the Wembley Stadium, in London, England, owned by the Football Association, hosted the London 2012 Olympic Games and the UEFA Champions League finals in 2011 and 2013 to great acclaim. A study by Coventry University, United Kingdom estimated that London, where Wembley is situated, generated revenue of €52 million for the 2011 UEFA CL final between Barcelona of Spain and Manchester United of England.
The Federal Government should see the two stadia in Abuja and Lagos as part of our national monuments. Just like the National Arts Theatre, Lagos and the museums around the country, the stadia are part of our history; they should not be concessioned to people, who are likely to turn them to uses other than sports.
Maintaining the two stadia should be part of a national effort to drive the growth of sports. It should involve the federal, state and local governments. This is because access to facilities is critical in the training of sportsmen and women. The private sector should also be brought in to support sports development.
Therefore, we call for a prudent management of the stadia. Competent professionals, including groundsmen, should be employed to manage the infrastructure. If money is generated from renting out the shops inside the facilities, the money should be released for facilities maintenance when the need arises
