The only games at the grand national stadium in Lagos these days take place in the dark, brooding bars and brothels that line the once-majestic facility in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Once one of the finest sports facilities on the continent and the pride of Lagos, the national stadium now overflows with rubbish, and the pungent, heavy funk of cheap brew and unwashed bodies.

Sex workers ply its track and field, seeking the patronage of the deluge of drinkers who throng the makeshift bars every evening and late into the night.

Occasionally, the main field hosts religious gatherings and crusades but the facility, most of which has been taken over by hoodlums popularly referred to as ‘area boys’ and squatters, could use some divine intervention.

It is difficult to recall when the stadium last hosted a sporting function. Built in 1972 in what was a former railway yard, the stadium could sit 55,000 spectators. It also boasted an eight-lane athletics track, a multi-purpose indoor sports hall, swimming pool, and table tennis lock-up hall.

It hosted several international competitions, including the 1973 All Africa Games, the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations final, the 1999 World Youth Championships, and the 2000 African Cup of Nations final.

“I played on that pitch and scored goals,” recalls Segun Odegbami, a former captain of Nigeria’s national football team, the Green Eagles, who led the team to its first Africa Cup of Nations title in 1980 at the facility.

“I felt elated to play, not just because I was a footballer, but because I was playing on home soil where the crowd cheered. I cannot imagine how it has turned the opposite. It is in a mess, a pitiable situation, it is a shame on the reflection of the country.’’

RIVAL SPORTS COMPLEX

The stadium in Lagos is symptomatic of the many sports facilities across Africa built and then neglected over the years. In the case of Nigeria, part of the problem is not the lack of facilities; it is having too many of them.

When Nigeria was chosen to host the 8th All Africa Games in October 2003, it decided to build a new stadium in the administrative capital, Abuja, rather than use its existing facilities.

The resulting 60,491-seat ultra modern multipurpose sports complex, built at a cost of about $300 million, is one of the greatest architectural landmarks in the city and the tenth largest in Africa. Its velodrome, one of the few on the continent, can accommodate 6,000 spectators.

Politics is partly to blame. Differences between federal officials in Abuja and those in opposition-run Lagos led officials in the commercial capital to build a new stadium, Teslim Balogun, right next to the old stadium.

All sports and other major activities in the ever-busy megacity city are now held at the 24,325-seat Teslim Balogun, which is owned by the state, while the old facility, which is owned by the federal government, rots away next door.

This article was first published in the Africa Review.