Kaduna Governor Uba Sani has begun rebuilding Ahmadu Bello Stadium, a facility that had slipped into serious disrepair, into a 33,000-seat ground with a FIFA-standard hybrid pitch. The aim, he says, is to put Kaduna back among Nigeria’s main football centres.
Opened in 1964 with about 16,000 seats, the stadium had declined so far that Mr Sani said he needed President Bola Tinubu’s approval before the state could take it over. The last CAF fixture there was in 2016, when the Super Eagles hosted Egypt. He said government owes it to the public to restore Kaduna’s name in sport.
The new pitch will mix natural grass with synthetic fibre. Mr Sani presented the work as part of a larger sports drive, arguing that football can bring in money through hospitality, transport and related trade, not only through tickets.
He has also moved to honour the state’s football veterans. Kaduna-born members of Nigeria’s 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold-winning side, among them Daniel Amokachi, Garba Lawal and Emmanuel Babayaro, have been allocated plots of land, a pledge dating back nearly thirty years. Streets are to be named after other former players.
After walking the site, Mr Amokachi said governments at both levels had promised the Olympic champions much after that win and left those pledges idle for three decades. He thanked the governor for keeping the word. Mr Lawal called the rebuilt stadium world-class and said it would spare the Super Eagles trips to Uyo to train. Mr Babayaro said the governor had drawn Kaduna’s football family together again and given the game in the state some of its former life.
