By: IDNN Sports
ABEOKUTA — For 20 long minutes during the men’s 10,000m final at the National Sports Festival, darkness fell. Not metaphorically. Literally.
The MKO Abiola Stadium, recently upgraded to host Nigeria’s biggest domestic multi-sport event, lost power mid-race—plunging the entire track, and national pride, into shadow.
And then came the response.
“It was a technical glitch,” said Shehu Dikko, Chairman of the National Sports Commission.
That might’ve worked in 2002. But in 2024, it’s not just insufficient—it’s insulting.
THE GLOW OF FAILURE
Athletes were running. Spectators were filming. Journalists were reporting. And then… blackout.
Runner Francis James of Plateau State, who finished the race in 30:36:50, openly admitted that the outage broke his rhythm and affected his time.
“I couldn’t see properly. I was disoriented. I train for months for this—this isn’t acceptable,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, viewers across Nigeria watched another international-level embarrassment unfold in real-time. One more entry into Nigeria’s hall of infrastructural shame.
DIKKO’S DEFENSE: TOO LITTLE, TOO OLD
Dikko’s full comment during the post-incident press conference:
“Essentially, this was a technical glitch, which is not uncommon for new facilities… Thankfully, it was resolved quickly.”
Except it wasn’t “quick”—it lasted 20 minutes.
And “not uncommon” for new facilities? That’s the problem.
You cannot sell taxpayers a freshly renovated stadium and then normalize blackout like it’s a seasonal event.
If the stadium has been operating “continuously,” why wasn’t load backup built into the power design?
Where was the solar reserve system? Where was redundancy? Why did the lights come back after the race ended?
These are not minor questions. They are the bare minimum for modern sports management.
⚡ THIS WAS NOT JUST A BLACKOUT. THIS WAS A RED FLAG.
The power cut during the final was not simply a malfunction. It was a **failure of:
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Infrastructure planning
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Event operations
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Risk mitigation
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Basic accountability**
Dikko’s attempt to wave it off as a glitch shows just how disconnected our sports administrators remain from the professional demands of hosting national events.
📢 THE PUBLIC DESERVES MORE THAN SHRUGS
This isn’t the first time power has failed at a major Nigerian event—and it likely won’t be the last if the response continues to be this lazy.
We need:
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A full incident report from the NSC on what happened
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Disclosure of the contractors responsible for stadium power systems
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Public assurance of contingency upgrades before the next festival
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An enforced infrastructure readiness audit before any stadium is declared NSF-ready
The days of brushing aside mismanagement with “it’s not uncommon” must end.
BOTTOM LINE: THIS IS WHY WE DON’T GET TAKEN SERIOUSLY
Shehu Dikko may believe his statement put out the fire. It didn’t.
Because when the lights went out, Nigeria didn’t just lose power.
We lost trust. We lost respect. We lost momentum.
And unless leaders like Dikko start talking like professionals and not spin doctors, it won’t be the last time.
