Nigerians have urged the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to ensure that the newly refurbished Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja is not left to rot again.
The stadium renovation was made possible courtesy of the Federal Government’s Adopt-A-Pitch initiative aimed at private sector collaboration to uplift sports facilities in the country.
The stadium hosted its first official football match in years when the women’s U-20 side Falconets took on Cameroon in a Costa Rica 2022 U-20 Women World Cup qualifier recently.
Tidesports source gathered that the stadium will also host the Super Eagles’ Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off second leg fixture against Ghana next month.
According to Dare, the contractors of the stadium will continue the maintenance of the facility for the next two years, before handing it over to the FG.
Nigerians pleaded with the government to ensure that the facility was not left decay again.
“Maintenance is the major problem. To build or renovate isn’t a problem, after two or three years now it will be competing with Sambisa forest,” @oyegbenrokola wrote on Twitter.
Another Twitter user @007Caesar added, “Very nice stadium, I hope they maintain it and not turn it into a venue for political campaigns and allies instead of the purpose it was built for.”
Orji Kingsley tweeted, “It’s not the renovation that is the problem but maintenance. Will they maintain it? It breaks my heart whenever I see the state of Berger right now compared to like just five years ago when it was renovated.
“Nigeria has no maintenance culture. Just give it a couple of years, the Adamasingba will look better than it. The National Stadium Surulere is now a hobo hotspot. People in charge would rather siphon the money to a bank abroad and pay huge taxes hiding it there.” Smoocho Inana stated.