Atlanta ’96 Heroes: Amokachi Praises Uba Sani For Honouring Olympic Champions

Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting

The Governor Kaduna State Uba Sani has fulfilled a 30-year-old promise to members of Nigeria’s historic 1996 Atlanta Olympic gold medal-winning team by allocating plots of land to three Kaduna-born members of the squad and naming streets after them.

Speaking to newsmen after inspecting the ongoing renovation of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, former Super Eagles star Daniel Amokachi recalled that following the Dream Team’s historic Olympic triumph in 1996, both the federal and state governments made several promises to the players, many of which were never fulfilled.

Amokachi disclosed that Governor Uba Sani has now honoured the long-standing commitment by allocating plots of land to himself, Garba Lawal and Emmanuel Babayaro 30 years after they were promised.

He added that the governor also directed that streets be named after other members of the team who had yet to be similarly honoured.

Amokachi who is renowned Football Manager and former Professional Player, said that they lacked the words to thank the Governor for his kind gestures and his promise to duly reward veteran footballers and coaches in their lifetimes.

Another former professional footballer and an ex General Manager of Kaduna United Football Club, Garba Lawal, described the Ahmadu Bello Stadium as a world-class stadium which will be of FIFA standard when completed.

‘’Now, Super Eagles will not have to go to Uyo to train. Now, this one is right here at my door mouth. It’s a wonderful project and by the Grace of God, we shall come and unveil it by November,’’ he added.

Another Olympic Gold Medalist, Emmanuel Babayaro noted that Governor Uba Sani has assembled the entire football family of Kaduna State and football is thriving again ‘’like we used to know it.

‘’Coming to the stadium and seeing the edifice and the very amazing work that is going on here, I can not but admit that he is indeed a political conundrum,’’ the former goalkeeper added.

While thanking the Governor for fulfilling a 30-year old promise, he recalled that ‘’the first time that Garba Lawal called me and sent me the papers for the land, I doubted it.

‘’The next thing that came to my mind was that maybe they needed us to come for one elaborate event and use it for some political whatever. But guess what, nothing of such came up.

‘’That means, he gave us those lands because he is that awesome. He did not say that ‘I am giving this land, come and say thank you on TV or come and do one political campaign or the other,’ ‘’ he added.

Responding, Governor Uba Sani thanked the football veterans, including coaches and administrators, for contributing to sports and football development in Kaduna State.

He noted that ‘’Kaduna is the leading footballing state in Nigeria. We have produced more stars that have gone out of the country and made their marks globally.

‘’As a Government, it is our responsibility to bring back the glory of Kaduna state in the world of sports. The last time that any CAF football tournament was played in this stadium was in 2016, when Super Eagles played against Egypt,’’ he recalled.

According to him, the condition of Ahmadu Bello Stadium has deteriorated so badly that he had to reach out to President Bola Tinubu, requesting that the sports facility be handed over to Kaduna State.

‘’I made it very clear to him that I will demolish the stadium, which had 16,000 seating capacity and was built in 1964. I disclosed to him that in the whole of Nigeria, there is only one CAF-standard football stadium, that is the one at Uyo with 31, 000 capacity.

‘’But today, I am happy to say that Ahmadu Bello Stadium when completed will be 33,000 capacity,’’ he said, adding that its pitch will be a hybrid of grass and synthetic.

‘’When completed, Ahmadu Bello Stadium will be the only stadium in Nigeria with a FIFA-standard pitch. Only last week, I was reading the number of stadiums in Africa that are CAF-standard. In Nigeria, there is only one stadium. When you are talking of FIFA-standard, we don’t have any, not even the Uyo stadium.

Governor Uba Sani pointed out that Kaduna State is investing heavily in sporting facilities because football generates a lot of revenue.

‘’In the last World Cup that was hosted in the United States, the country made about $20 to $24 billion, in terms of hotel accommodation, transportation and hospitality generally.

‘’Only recently, Morocco hosted CAF/AFCON tournament and from what we have seen, the country was also able to get at least $1.4 billion from all the different regions where the event took place,’’ he maintained.