Lagos — Nigeria's poor maintenance culture is public knowledge. So the worry is why it has refused to improve. It shows in every aspect of national life - roads, schools, hospitals and now stadia.

The National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos is one typical example of how not to treat a national monument. The stadium, until recently a national pride, is in a degenerate state. And nobody is bothered about it, or so it seems.

Sadly, the country seems to have grown so indifferent to its poor state that it took a foreigner, the visiting FIFA Vice President, Mr Jack Warner, to raise alarm about the abandoned stadium.

Hear him: "the way those in position of authority allowed that edifice (National Stadium) to rot away left much to be desired. The stadium has turned to a very serious disaster".

A disaster indeed!

Until the Abuja stadium was built a few years ago, the National Stadium was the pride of the nation, where every Nigerian athlete dreamt to perform. For a soccer-loving nation, the National Stadium very well approximated the symbol of our soccer. Originally built to accommodate 45,000 persons in 1972, the stadium was later expanded to a 55,000 capacity facility in 1999.

Until the decay, it used to be the venue of choice for most national and international sporting events. It had hosted several great matches, including All Africa Games of 1973, the 2000 African Cup of Nations and even the World Cup qualifying matches.

But gradually and steadily, over the years, neglect hastened by greed and corruption has reduced the once-enviable structure to a husky wretch. Since 2002, the stadium has been virtually abandoned to the harsh effects of decay, weather and vandalism.

And left unattended, the degeneration has only increased in speed and dimension. After the 2004 national team played at the stadium, no meaningful sporting activity, let alone soccer competition, has taken place there.

The only use to which the stadium is occasionally put now are religious crusades, automobile parking space and hide-out for street urchins.

But for a privately-run restaurant in the stadium complex, perhaps the gates would have been shut permanently.

With the football pitch in such a terrible state, collapsed dressing rooms , leaking roofs, flooded tracks, years of power cut (because of huge unsettled utility debts), frog-infested swimming pool, and completely broken toilets and other conveniences, the stadium is in a state of dis-use.

Nothing dramatizes the shame more than the fact that the just concluded U-17 World Cup matches in the Lagos centre had to be played in the state-owned Teslim Balogun Stadium, directly opposite the National Stadium. Like Warner, most football fans were amazed by the rot at the National Stadium, and they must have gone away with a bad impression of its owners - the Federal Government.

It is indeed a shame that we are hardly able to manage what we have well. Besides being an eyesore, the rot of the stadium translates to huge economic loss. Given its prime location, the large space it sits on, its assets and other ancillary advantages, the stadium is indeed a gold mine. But as with most other national infrastructure, it is being wasted.

The building of a new Federal Capital was a necessity, but allowing national assets in Lagos to rot away as if the country is rich enough to do away with them is politically and economically unwise. Lagos, as the financial and economic capital of Nigeria is still as useful to the country as it is to Lagos State. Visitors, such as those who came in for the World Cup matches would not say they visited Lagos. They visited Nigeria.

We believe the National Stadium, Surulere can be turned around to relive its past glory. It is better done now to save cost or be privatised.