National Stadium Surulere, The Aftermath

When the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos was built in 1972, it was regarded as one of the best stadia in Africa.

With initial capacity of 55,000, reduced to 45, 000 in 1999, the stadium is a multi-purpose stadium used for various sporting events but mostly for football matches.

It hosted several international competitions including the 1980 African Cup of Nations final, the 2000 African Cup of Nations final, and FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. It also served as the main stadium for the 1973 All-Africa Games.

For unknown reasons, the once beautiful stadium has been left to dilapidate since 2002.

It last hosted a national team game in 2004. It is now occasionally used for religious gathering and has been taken over by area boy and squatters.

In January, President Goodluck Jonathan, through former Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, announced the concession of the stadium to private investors, claiming it was a move to salvage the dire state of the edifice.

However, a visit to the stadium recently showed that it is in coma, with broken doors, poor state of the football pitch, bad state of the roofs over the spectators stand among others which put the stadium in its deprived state.

Below are some of the photos of the remains of the stadium:

It is hoped that those in authorities would do something to salvage this national edifice that used to be the pride of the nation before it is too late.