Why the Nigerians didn’t win any swimming medals by Allen Wilson

Posted August 30th, 2008 by info

About five years ago in Abuja, federal capital of Nigeria in an attempt to win the hosting of various sporting events, a national stadium was built.

       Nigerian 50 metre Pool

This included a 60,000 capacity sports stadium where Man United recently played Portsmouth in an exhibition game.Alongside the stadium a pool complex was built with facilities to rival anywhere in the western world; a 50 metre 8 lane deck level pool and a 6 metre deep diving pit with two 3 metre springboard and 5 & 7 metre fixed boards.The outdoor complex had tiered seating on both sides.

    Nigerian Diving Pit

 Part of my work in Nigeria involved inspecting the facility with a group of Nigerian pool operators and we were all shocked at what we found. Naively in the aftermath of the Olympics I expected this facility to be busy and, at only five years old, still in pristine condition.
 
However what I found was an abandoned complex being left to rot:

  • The water in both pools was green and cloudy and obviously untreated
  • The pool covers at some time in the past had been removed and dumped poolside
  • The only operative employed was wasting his time trying to vacuum the main pool bottom using a motor driven pump. This pumped water onto the poolside leaving deposits of filter sand, indicating the filter under-drains were damaged
  • There was no electricity to the plant room
  • By flash-lamp we could see that the plant was sadly neglected and allow to degrade.
  • Pipe-work had imploded through cavitation.
  • Pumps were leaking and all the plant room was wet

    Damage to pipe-work.

 Why was this wonderful facility allowed to degrade to this sorry state, I asked one of the pool operators. What was happening to the repairs and maintenance budget.
 
He told me that there was probably a budget but someone had grabbed it, either for themselves or for some pet project.
In the UK we are often guilty of procrastination and I have always said “if it wasn’t for the last minute we would never get anything done”. Well they say in Nigeria that they don’t start thinking about doing anything until five minutes after that.
It s likely that the only chance this facility has is if Nigeria gets a world class event to host but even this is unlikely if the bodies awarding these events decide to inspect this facility first.
 
Allen J Wilson
Abujo, Nigeria
September 08