Odegbami: Abuja stadium cannot thrive, every brick is stained with corruption

Olusegun Odegbami, retired Nigerian footballer, says the Abuja National Stadium is desolate because every brick of the structure is stained with corruption.

Odegbami made this statement while speaking on Monday at The Platform, a program organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Iganmu, Lagos.

He said while the stadium was one of the costliest to build in the world, “nobody goes there”.

“There’s another world aside from football, it is powered by football but it is not football. It is very interesting that not many people have discovered that world,” Odegbami said while speaking on the topic,’With Sports, we can change Nigeria’.

“That was where we were heading when we did KOJA, when Nigeria did the Abuja National Stadium, one of the most beautiful stadium edifices in the world, state of the art, a masterpiece of architecture.

“When you enter Abuja, it is sitting majestically and it is the thing that welcomes you. Unfortunately, unlike the Amsterdam arena, nobody goes there.

“I worked there for two years and I don’t think I had more than 10 or so visitors. It is desolate, it is desolate because it is a reflection of who we are.

“The tears, sweat, blood of ordinary Nigerians whose resources were used to build that stadium the way that stadium was built; one of the costliest stadium in the world to build, every brick, every block is stained with corruption.

“We organised the most reckless, blatantly and brazenly we saw Nigerians from top to bottom looting our treasury and calling it KOJA. You see it is not cursed but it is the commonwealth of all of us and people went there and performed their squandermania.

“How can such a thing thrive? It cannot thrive that’s why it’s desolate. That Abuja stadium is a constant reminder of who we.”

The stadium, which has a capacity of 60,491 spectators, was constructed when Abuja was selected to host the All Africa Games in 2000.