By Victor Kanayo
There appears to be an uneasy calm over intensified move by some top Nigerian Government and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) officials to ensure that the country host 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
Already, the plan is not going down well with Nigerians who on Tuesday called on their President, Bola Tinubu to shelve the idea and rather deploy the nation’s resources towards rescuing its dwindling economy.
Speaking through their lawmakers at the Nigerian House of Representatives, the teaming Nigerian populace, mostly youths, wondered the benefits the country derived from hosting similar sporting events in the past, instead Nigeria’s sporting facilities had been left to rot away moment after such competitions are held.
No Gain Bid
House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Sports, Honourable Ekene Adams, who conveyed the message, revealed that Nigeria was not positioned to host 2027 African Cup of Nations due to hardship occasioned by the present economic realities.
The Kaduna state-born lawmaker who spoke on Tuesday in Abuja, said in as much as it was a good thing for a country to host major championships, “it is however not a current priority for a Nation like ours.”
“We are not kicking against bidding for the Nations cup but I am against the timing of such step in relation to our current economic realities which every one of us is not ignorant of.
“As someone who has the fear of God I can tell you for free that now that we are talking about hosting the Nations Cup, it has to do with building new facilities, and renovating stadiums but all of these things are only beneficiary to we the stakeholders and politicians to make more money.
“I don’t think we mean well for the common man if this is our current priority as a government.
“The common man can hardly feed three times a day with the effect of the subsidy and it will not be good to hide under the disguise of Sports and things like this to enrich ourselves at the expense of Nigerians.
“For example, the palliatives the National Assembly approved for Nigerians to cushion the effect of the subsidy hardship has not gotten to Nigerians across the country and the only thing we the stakeholders are concern about now is wanting to host the AFCON.
“And after spending so much money to host this AFCON we will then leave the facilities delapidated as usual and the lack of maintenance story will continue which another Government will come again to spend so much on and nothing meaningful would have changed.
“As a lawmaker representing the People I must also stress that I am an apostle of good change and will not support anything I know will not benefit the common man,” he told Heritage Times HT on Tuesday.
Decision Day
The joint bid by Nigeria and neighbour Republic of Benin has loomed to the forefront in the race for hosting of the 36th edition of Africa Cup of Nations in 2027, with the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football to vote on the bids for both 2025 and 2027 in Cairo on Wednesday, September 27, 2023.
The meeting will take place at Cairo Marriott Hotel in Zamalek area of downtown Cairo.
Permutations Ahead
With Morocco virtually guaranteed the honour for the 2025 finals, the joint bid by Nigeria and Republic of Benin is in contest with Senegal, Egypt, Botswana and a tripartite arrangement of Uganda/Kenya/Tanzania for the 2027 event.
Algeria was a strong candidate for the 2027 event until the North African country withdrew from the race on Tuesday morning.
Guinea was originally selected to host the 2025 finals, on the same day that Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire were given the mandates for the 2021 and 2023 editions respectively.
But the Guineans fell behind badly in the preparations with infrastructure and other facilities unattended to. A new military government in place has not helped the country’s case, and CAF simply withdrew the hosting right from that country.
Pushing Despite Dearth Of Sporting Facilities
Nigeria has put forward the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja; Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt; Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo; Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos; Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna; Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba; Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City and; Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano.
Yet, of all the eight facilities, only one is in use for international matches after approval by CAF.
In the Republic of Benin, the Stade Mathieu Kerekou in Cotonou and the Stade Charles de Gaulle in Porto Novo are listed.
Nigeria hosted and won the 12th edition of the AFCON in 1980 and then co-hosted the 22nd finals with Ghana in 2000.
