Football: Disaster averted in Kaduna stadium

A disaster of monumental proportions was averted at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna yesterday when the Super Eagles hosted the Pharaohs of Egypt in an African Cup of Nations qualifier. Over 40,000 people were crammed into the stadium – which has only 25,000 capacity – as the state government threw the gates open for fans to watch free of charge.

The place was filled to the brim. There were people everywhere. Many supporters stood on the athletics tracks to watch the game, while others climbed the scoreboard and even the floodlights!

This kind of scene has never been seen before in any FIFA match played in Nigeria.

The Kaduna State government did well to make fans enter the stadium free of charge but they should have anticipated that the venue would be overcrowded by fans who may never get another opportunity to watch the Super Eagles free of charge. The government should have managed the event properly, ensuring that the gates were closed once the stadium had reached capacity.

How everyone went out of the stadium safely beats my imagination. It is incredible that no casualty was reported during or after the match, which ended 1-1.

Nigerian football fans are known to be highly emotional and extremely volatile. Before the match Mikel Obi had been mobbed by fans after he refused to take a selfie. What if the fans had decided to vent their spleen on the Super Eagles players for allowing Egypt to equalize at the dying seconds of the match? Someone must be made to explain why thousands of extra spectators were allowed into the stadium. This would easily have ended in a serious tragedy. The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) knows how many people have died in stadiums across the world due to poor crowd management. That this would be allowed to happen in Nigeria in 2016 is simply not acceptable.

The Immigration job scam, which claimed the lives of 23 job seekers in Nigeria, is still fresh in our memories. The stampede took place just two years ago in stadiums across the country.

This has also portrayed the country in very negative light and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) would most likely penalize Nigeria for this inexplicable oversight.

In 2001, 127 people died in Accra, Ghana after a stampede. It was one of the worst stadium disasters in Africa. In 2009, the Ivorian FA was fined $47,000 by FIFA, after poor crowd control led to the deaths of 19 people. Nigeria should not be the next case.