In the name of Transformation or Change

By Professor Patrick Omo-Osagie

Let me provide unsolicited advice to our leaders on the issue of sport or to be more specific football. My advice comes at a time when we are about to have a presidential election and little or nothing is said about sport. I understand that there are far more important issues affecting our nation than our not qualifying for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. We have education, health and infrastructure issues to deal with, so I really do not expect our major presidential candidates to focus on sport or football.

Football is the only sport that the federal government cares about; the Nigeria Football Federation is a government parastatal. The government allocates money directly to the football federation; it is in our yearly budget. That is why I would have loved to hear something about what the government will do to transform or change our sport and football fortunes. Transformation or change to our sport/ football will be the beginning of sports wisdom in Nigeria. Football gulps up all the money for sport in the system and this has to transform or change.

Here is what I will advise the transformation or change governments to do: transform or change the two national stadiums in Abuja and Lagos. Abuja National stadium should become the campus of a new Sports University/upgrade the National Institute for Sports (NIS) to award degrees and the Lagos National stadium should become the home/asset of the Nigeria Football Federation.

These two structures are fast going into ruins and I am surprised that at least at some level, a few questions about what our presidential candidates would do with them should be asked. But I heard nothing from them and equally heard nothing from sports journalists; this is an issue that we must solve.

The Abuja National Stadium as a campus for a Sports University is making use of a facility in the only way I think possible for now. The government transfers the complex to the NIS or even a private university for the sole purpose of sports education. The stadium complex is so well built for a campus but wrongly located for commercial purposes. So if the government keeps it, they will never be able to fund it to keep it alive. You can locate a first class sports university on this property and continue to develop it with high school academies (demonstration schools), camping facilities and auditoriums/lecture or presentation rooms.

If indeed we are in transformation or change mode, we need to be bold with our ideas and decisions on how to move beyond what operates today. The Abuja National Stadium can only survive if we convert it to something else and that is into a university sports campus.

Nigeria Abuja Sports University (NASU).

The federal government is definitely confused on what to do with the National Stadium, Lagos. The idea to privatize this stadium has been around for several years, but there is a definite reluctance to privatize. Many ministerial bodies have been set up to look into private concessions but we have no results yet. No minister wants to take charge of the dismantling of one of the most revered edifices of sports in Nigeria. The stadium built in 1973 to host the second All Africa Games, also hosted the first two editions of the National Sports Festival (1973 & 1975). Every successful Nigerian sports person has come through the stadium, boxers, track and field stars, even our coaches – NIS. This place is one that should not die; it must be transformed or changed for the better.

My solution and the only one I see that will be less controversial is to hand the National Stadium in Surulere to the Nigeria Football Federation as an asset. The Nigeria Football Federation needs an asset, it needs something to call its own, it needs something that can generate money and I see nothing in horizon that can take care of all the needs of the federation besides owning the National Stadium in Surulere. I always thought that it was a bad idea to have built the NFF head office in Abuja, Lagos is where private money resides, Abuja is for government money. But they chose Abuja (government money) and they then cry for private involvement.

Here is how to transform or change the fortunes of the NFF; the government should lease the stadium to the NFF for a hundred years for a thousand naira. The NFF can then go out and find private money to transform or change the stadium. Private money can do wonders to the stadium; I for one will make it a smaller stadium, capacity wise. I will rebuild the interior of the main bowl without running tracks, I will add private luxury boxes and I would cover all the sitting. I will completely refurbish the NIS hostel, I will build a running tartan track on the outside field, and I will refurbish/expand the indoor hall. These are just a few things that I believe can be done if the stadium is handed over to the NFF, but the NFF must position itself to make this happen. They must go out and hire a consortium of consultants to build a document that they will sell to the federal government and to the Nigerian people. In a hundred years our football would have been transformed or changed with this simple idea, but if it doesn’t work, I will be long gone before the expiration of the lease.

In the Name of Transformation or Change; AMEN

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