The Minister of Youth & Sports, Sunday Dare has assure Super Eagles that their home ground, the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja will be restored to an excellent state before their next AFCON qualifier in September.
This came after Nigerian football fans had criticized the poor state of the football pitch, following the super eagles narrow win against the Leone stars of Sierra Leone in the first AFCON 2023 qualifiers game last week.
Prior to this time, it would be seen that the Dangote Group of Companies had carried out a proper renovation through local contractors, Aron Nigeria, who reportedly made use of pure dynasty pas palum — the latest grass technology in the world, which will also be used for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, as well as latest digital technology for the scoreboards.
The revamped pitch was completed with nursery beds, two digital scoreboards, 24 sprinklers and a two-year maintenance plan,as part of the contract reached with Dangote Industries under the Public-Private Partnership initiative of the sports ministry.
The said renovation was said to cost the business mogul a total of $1M, and it will indeed be a thing of worry that Ten months after Dangote Group of Companies handed over the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja to the Federal Government, the rehabilitated football pitch of the stadium is back to it's old deplorable state.
Now needing another special intervention from the ministry of Youth and Sports again. The Sports minister made this known after Super eagles mauling of Sao Tome and Principe 10 nil, and he was quoted as saying:
"We, as a Ministry, take the responsibility for the state of the MKO Stadium, Abuja when you played against Sierra Leone. "The excitement of having the stadium back to life led to a few issues like the over use and the infestation by a specie of termites and bugs.
"We have engaged a new grass consultant and got a hold of these issues and in a few weeks, the pitch will be back in the excellent shape it was before the World Cup qualifier against Ghana last March."
Why the Need for Special Intervention?
• Poor Maintenance Culture in Nigeria:
The playing turf of the Moshood Abiola stadium needing another special intervention from the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, shows how bad our maintenance culture is in the country.
When you consider the fact that that it was just 10 months ago that the Dangote group of companies, handed over the stadium to the federal government.
The stadium has since then hosted, three international games since then and a couple of some NPFL games, and is in bad in shape again.
This would be seen as the reason why the special intervention is needed on the playing turf of the Abuja National stadia, and not what the sport minister referred to over use and the infestation by a specie of termites and bugs.
What this could mean for the Super eagles going forward:
◾Free Flowing Football:
A better playing turf in Abuja would translate to the super eagles playing free flow attacking football, and not what happened last week Thursday when they hosted the Leone stars of Sierra Leone.
The ball bounced awkwardly as both set of players struggled to string a complete pass, unlike what we saw yesterday in Agadir, Morrocco where the playing turf was excellent and allowed for free flowing attacking football from the eagles.
The assurance given by the Sports minister Mr. Sunday Dare about improving the state of the pitch before the Super eagles host Guinea - Bissau in a double header come September, is highly commendable but a lot still has to be done in maintaining these sports facilities across the country.