Nigeria 99?
Chris McGreal in Lagos Soccer
Nigeria’s military ruler, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, last week kicked off a campaign to proclaim the World Under-20 Championship a success before a goal is scored. Football chiefs and military men were treated to a spectacle of dancers and speeches about the wonders of “Nigeria 99”.
And then the lights went out. Nigeria’s notoriously unreliable electricity company had struck again. Abubakar fumed.
“We can’t have this. The organisers of Nigeria 99 and government officials cannot mess us up. Look, you are preparing to host the world. You have brought people here and you are messing them up. I will not have this,” he said.
Nigeria is desperate to make a success of the youth championships, in part as a showcase for its bid to host the 2006 World Cup. But the persistant criticism from English clubs over security, medical facilities and disorganisation has angered the Nigerians. Last week Leeds United said it will refuse to release its English and Irish players to take part in the tournament.
Paul Bassey, representative for the Nigeria 99 organisers, is scornful.
“We have foreigners working in this country. We don’t hear of them being slaughtered on the streets. They drink our water, they eat our food, they use our hospitals. All this talk about Nigeria being bad for your health is ridiculous. It’s particularly surprising coming from our former colonial masters,” he said.
“The economic reality and political situation are very different from Europe. If you go to Kaduna and expect to see a bit of England you’re going to be disappointed. It’s not England but that doesn’t mean we can’t host a football championship.”
Fifa pulled the youth championship out of Nigeria four years ago, ostensibly because of health and security concerns under the previous, particularly brutal military regime.
This time the Nigerians want no such humiliation. They have been working to upgrade stadiums and hotels since August when a Fifa team rejected facilities at five of the eight venues – Bauchi, Calabar, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Lagos.
Last year, a Fifa health team criticised emergency medical and laboratory facilities as inadequate at all the match venues. The inspectors described some of the hotels as “a shadow of their former selves”.
The government says it has spent more than 70- million to meet Fifa’s requirements. Hotels have been spruced up. Hospitals have been fitted with new equipment. There have always been reasonable medical facilities for those who can pay in Nigeria but an air ambulance from Switzerland will be on hand to fly players to a European hospital.
Fifa says it can see the results of Nigerian efforts and has endorsed the preparations except for a few “little problems”. It describes continuing concerns over poor health facilities and security as “imaginary”. The Nigerians say they are taking elaborate precautions to cocoon the players.
Bassey says that when they leave Lagos airport they will be escorted by armed outriders to protect their cars. From then on they will never be alone.
Nigeria is also keen to project a picture of political stability.
Last week’s presidential election could change that if it is seen to be tainted by fraud or produces an upset victory for the underdog opposition candidate.
But it seems unlikely there would be enough upheaval to upset the youth championship.
Paul Bassey argues that what is good enough for Fifa should be good enough for everyone else and questions why English clubs are kicking up the most fuss.
“We’re not leaving everything in the hands of Nigerians, not because they’re not capable but because it’s a Fifa competition. Fifa are not lowering the standards just because it’s Nigeria,” he said.
The military government concedes there are still problems. This week it criticised the slow pace of work by the company contracted to upgrade the national stadium in Lagos, where the championship final will be played. The task is not made any the easier by persistent theft.
The police shot dead one man and arrested three others attempting to burgle the stadium this week. One of the thieves works for the country’s National Institute of Sports. He had been attempting to cart off parts of the expensive new electronic scoreboard in a wheelbarrow. A fortnight ago, someone stole the new toilet seats from the stadium.
Last month, a Fifa delegation still had concerns about two other venues – Calabar and Port Harcourt – because of missing floodlights and poor-quality pitches. A Nigerian official at the Port Harcourt stadium described the pitch as “a little bumpy”. Fifa wants it levelled. The training pitches also need improving.
In the northern city of Kaduna, the stadium manager was none too keen to talk about preparations there. He said he was forbidden to speak. Asked why, he said: “It’s too important. No one must say anything which could cause problems.”
Hotels are the other headache for the organisers. Fifa is setting standards of accommodation way above the some British boarding schools.
Among the chosen hotels in Kaduna is the Nigerian Air Force .MD+IN/Club which, despite its name, is not run by the military. But it was an airforce club and has an old jet fighter used in the Biafran war planted in the car park.
The hotel is clean with good food and security. The rooms are simple but spacious and with modern air conditioning. Fifa has demanded that they be fitted with twin beds so they can be shared by two players, and that the shower units be fitted to the walls. The hotel says it will meet the requirements in time.
Other places present more problems. The President Hotel in Port Harcourt is a grubby, dilapidated affair. There is little evidence of maintenance since it was built in the Sixties.
Even the furniture looks as if it belongs on The Avengers.
Many of the chosen hotels are usually crawling with prostitutes.
Presumably they will be cleared out or kept at a safe distance, although Nigerian prostitutes are not easily discouraged. A simple “no” does not always suffice when being charged at speed by a woman shouting, “Small boy, make me your wife.”
But they usually get the message if you run fast enough. If the temptation proves too much, many hotels put condoms in the rooms.
Disorganisation is in the nature of Nigeria, but it will be more than compensated for by the enthusiasm and hospitality of ordinary Nigerians.
They are mad about football and, on the whole, very welcoming of foreigners.
The English players will have the advantage of meeting people who mostly speak their language as they travel between such striking venues such as the ancient city of Kano in the north to the vast tropical delta in the south-east.