The major part of the roof of the gymnasium hall belonging to National Institute For Sports at the National Stadium Surulere-Lagos has been blew off by a heavy wind during rainfall recently.
The gymnasium hall which used to be a beehive of sporting activities is now a shadow of itself.
According to an eyewitness, the rooftop has been like that for about two months since the roof was blown off and it has been leaking for the past five years without any effort from the management to repair the affected portion until the wind penetrated through those points to cause a serious damage to a larger portion of the roof.
All sporting activities like basketball, table tennis and volleyball that took place in the gymnasium hall were greatly affected as the youths and the students of National institute for sports that used the place for practical training were loitering about the compound at a time they should be training.Many of them complained bitterly about the negligence of such an important facility.
An eye witness who prefers to be anonymous lamented bitterly that it is the sporting activities in that place that keeps the youths busy and now that the gymnasium hall is in a dilapidated condition, many of them engaged in smoking and drinking alcohol.
A stitch in time saves nine, so goes the popular adage. Due to negligence on the part of the government and the management of the stadium facilities for the past two months, the open roof is now affecting the floor of the hall which was made of wood.Whenever rainfall, the wood will be soaked with water which has destroyed its smooth edges which were designed for indoor sporting activities.
The repair to be carried out now is not only the roof, the floor also requires work.
With this trend in the management of our stadium facilities, how will Nigerian Athletes bring honour to this nation at the Olympics or has gold medal become a forbidden fruit to us as a nation?
Who would be the whistleblower to blow this into FG ears?
Below are some of the pictures taken by our reporter:
