A former football administrator has launched a stinging attack on two ex-ministers of sports, holding them directly accountable for the prolonged dysfunction of Nigeria's two most prominent national sporting venues.

Alhaji Shuaib Gara Gombe, who previously chaired the Gombe State Football Association, named former ministers Solomon Dalung and Sunday Dare as the individuals responsible for the deterioration of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja and the National Stadium in Lagos.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Monday, Gara Gombe described the situation as an embarrassment to the country, noting that Nigeria can no longer point to more than one FIFA- and CAF-approved stadium within its borders.

Concession deals under scrutiny

Gara Gombe trained much of his criticism on Dalung's tenure, alleging that key sections of the stadiums were handed over to private interests under circumstances he described as questionable. He claimed that the swimming pool, the Games Village, the indoor sports hall, and the main gate were all concessioned — in some cases to a firm identified as O'jez — and that large sums of money changed hands under terms that were never made transparent to the public.