Onikan Stadium: Another Abandoned Project?

The Onikan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Lagos. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of various Lagos teams, most notably Ikorodu United F.C., Stationery Stores F.C., First Bank and Julius Berger FC. The stadium has a capacity of 5,000 people and is the oldest in Nigeria.

Located on the Lagos Island near Tafewa Balewa Square, the original stadium was built in 1930 and six years later named after King George V. Between 1963 and 1973, it became known as the Lagos City Stadium

Currently, the stadium is undergoing transformation and upgrade into an iconic sporting centre. The facility, upon completion, will be an all-covered ultra-modern international stadium with FIFA certified artificial turf and multipurpose arena for entertainment concerts with a capacity to accommodate 10,000 people, among others.

Last year the Lagos State officials with the executive governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode visited this site to inspect work done in this aspect, during the visit, the engineers assured the state government that the stadium will be completed in no time. 7 months after, it seems either Slava Bogu Construction Company is either sleeping or something is amiss.

AutoReportNG was at Onikan, Muson Centre and we decided to take a stroll to the stadium as it’s just a stone thrown away but we are surprised that nothing concrete has been done save for the roofing that was completed recently. We sought to know the reason for this delay but the securities are not friendly as the gate was slammed at us, we can’t revolt as there is a police zonal office nearby, we have to leave not so as not to cause a scene.

Our investigation, however, reveals that the stadium may not be completed in Mr. Ambode’s tenure as there is still a lot of work to be done. For example, we noticed that since last year, only the roofing and the slabs have been done,  nothing tangible to point to. The flooring, the lightings, and others have not even started needlessly of starting in bits. If going by the morale of last year during the governor’s inspection, the stadium ought to have been completed by now! Another point to this may be as a result of Gov. Ambode’s failed bid to reclaim his second term ticket. Whatever may be the case, we want a Lagos that works.

The stadium started its reconstruction in 2017 by the late Mr. Deji Tinubu who was the commissioner for sports. The project was scheduled to have been completed in January 2019 but we are still at the preliminary stage.

These are some of the pictures we got online as we can not gain entrance to take pictures of the stadium, we will revert once we gain entrance to take a detailed picture of the site.

 From the Overbridge Bridge…

The Final Output/Design