Kano's Sani Abacha Stadium, which has hosted prestigious football competitions like the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations and the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Cup, has lost its charm and has been unfit to host a national fixture for years.
This can be attributed to poor maintenance, the facility's abandonment for years, and its misuse for purposes other than football. All of these combined to aggravate the already damaged artificial grass on the home pitch of Kano Pillars FC.
To give the sports facility a facelift, the Kano State government, during its Executive Council Meeting on 21 August 2024, approved N276.7 million for the renovation and replacement of the turf after years of neglect.
A few weeks after the stadium's reopening, local sports enthusiasts are already lamenting the poor quality of the work and materials deployed for the project despite the huge spending.
After replacing the worn-out turf for the first time since the construction of the stadium in 1998, some stakeholders and other professionals alike say the surface of the pitch became uneven and marred with bumps, slopes, and shallow holes.
With this, the joy derived from the reopening of the stadium after the renovation, which forced the home side, Kano Pillars FC to play its opening matches of the current NPFL season at the Mohammadu Dikko Stadium was short-lived, no thanks to the quality of work done.
Speaking to Arewa Radio, a professional Nigerian referee, who pleaded anonymity wondered how the pitch developed many faults a few matches after its renovation.
Expressing concern over how the pitch developed noticeable bumps and slopes after just a few games in the facility, he said “A lot of fixing needs to be done in this stadium because the quality of the work is poor, even with the money spent by the Kano State Government.”
Alhaji Tijjani, an ex-RACA Rovers player, who trains at the Sani Abacha Stadium weekly, also lamented the bumpy turf, calling on the Kano State Government to review the work and take immediate action.
According to him, even the exhausted old synthetic turf is of superior quality to the one on the pitch at the moment.
“The problem is too obvious that it is hard to miss whenever you look at the center pitch, if the government wants to fix the stadium, it should be done professionally.”
The ex-football star shared the same sentiment with a youth player, who featured at the just concluded Kano Super League in the stadium, who called on the government to review the work and address the problems as soon as possible.
Also, a member of Kano Pillars Fans Club, Khamis Yahya recalled how a Niger Tornadoes defender loosed balance after hitting the bumps during one of the NPFL fixtures this season, expressing fear that the organizers of the league may find the stadium unfit to continue hosting the league games.
“If the League Management Company (LMC) finds out about this embarrassing situation, it can lead to the stadium being banned from hosting even the NPFL matches, which affect the home side badly in its quest for glory this season.”
About the pitch not being qualified for international and national games since its hay days, the Media Officer of the National Under 20 team, Shariff Abdallah, confirmed the Kano Stadium cannot pass the scrutiny of both the continental and world’s football governing bodies.
Abdallah urged the Kano State Government to consult and partner with the Nigeria Football Federation while embarking on such projects that require professionalism.
On his part, the Chairman of the Kano State Football Association, Shariff Rabi’u Inuwa Ahlan, who doubles as an executive board member of the NFF, said aside from the infrastructure decay, there other challenges faced by the Sani Abacha Stadium in particular as well as Football development in the North as a whole.
According to the veteran football administrator, “A stadium is not supposed to be in a public place like that and close to a popular market for that matter, let me not even start with the myriads of infrastructure deficits in the stadium”.
“If you look closely, the only stadiums close to meeting continental and national standards are the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna and the Mohammad Dikko Stadium in Katsina State and even these stadiums have failed to measure up in terms of security, quality pitch, dressing room, media center among others.”
Ahlan further decried the nonchalance towards supporting national sporting activities by Northern States, hence part of the reason why the region is left far behind and in turn, not enjoying the presence of national sporting events.
Our correspondent reached out to the State Ministry for Youth and Sports for comments under the leadership of Mustapha Kwankwaso but was redirected to the Ministry of Works and until the time of filing this report, the commissioner Engr. Marwan Ahmad could not be reached despite several attempts.
