I was fortunate to see a Nigerian Premier League match for the first time this season, and a lot hit me, as I found the league I thought had moved 20 years closer to the elite leagues to be 40 years behind.
As a fan, my live experience of the Nigerian top-flight league had been limited to the Southwestern part of the country, where stakeholders are pressured into moulding their clubs into the company of the best around.
From Remo Stars to Shooting Stars, Ikorodu City, Sporting Lagos, and the likes, they leave fans anticipating every home game not only because of the atmosphere they create, but also because they get to experience what they watch in clubs abroad, at home.
How naive was I to think that was how it would be in every part of the country? Although I was yet pumped to the extent of traveling to the other parts and watching the games, fate took me away from my comfort zone, and I found myself there, where I would call ‘no man’s land’.
For my National Youth Service Corps year, I was posted to Niger state, and even though I had the option to rescind the outcome, I decided to stay put and explore for the year, in the hope of living the same experience I was used to.
Unfortunately, a rude awakening awaited me, and my first time going to see the stadium, I thought it was a joke, and that ‘…’, would just not be a ground for a top-flight game. But it is. Poor me.
Southwest; a class of its own
Whatever they feel over there at elite clubs abroad, come to the southwestern part of Nigeria and you will live it. It is about the commitment to set the pace and the urge not to get left behind by your rivals.
The clubs play their part, and the fans understand their roles as well, and played it to perfection.
From different cities, towns, and villages, fans travel down to the stadia on Matchdays to watch the games. Even those in neighbouring states sometimes join the queue, just to live what it feels like when their representatives are out of the top flight.
It was this impeccable structure that led to their consistency at the top level. Take for instance, Remo Stars finished in the top three for three consecutive seasons before finally winning the NPFL title for the first time in 2025.
Their appearance is attractive to the best players in the league, while theirs find easy routes to clubs abroad, because of the inter club relationship with their counterparts from other continents, and this would not come to be at a club like Niger Tornadoes.
Niger Tornadoes; a club still in the 1970s
It is as crude as crude gets, and maybe, this is the reason why a visiting team rarely gets away with a win.
It is hilarious that the constituted Board actually approved their home ground, the Bako Kotangora stadium, for NPFL games because it is an eyesore, especially for a fan who has seen other stadia up close.
To make it more amusing, I found that the stadium has just undergone renovations, and approval was recently attained by the League’s body.
From the entrance to the seats, the pitch, and more. I was not fortunate enough to see the dressing room, but the outside literally gives away what they have inside.
The side pitch concede wall is just a few meters away from the pitch, the kind of setting that saw Billy Vigar lost his live to a craniocerebral trauma (severe brain injury) back in September.
Matchday chaos
For a stadium that expects thousands of fans on Matchday, the entrance for regulars is like the door to a hut, while there is nothing special about their VIP section. Dirty, rancid, and chaotic, I paid for it and watched the entire game standing.
If any of the fans were privileged to watch the game at the grounds of some of the other clubs in the league, the ones close to 21st-century clubs, they would know the league table is the only thing that brings these clubs closer.
The commentary was a pure joke. A simple stadium announcer would be times better. Commentating on a top-flight league, he trolled Barcelona fans almost every time he had to call the scoreline between the two sides playing the match.”
Niger Tornadoes 1, Remo Stars 0. Chelsea 3, Barcelona 0″, he said countless times during the game, or maybe for a better duration of it, because the host scored the game’s only goal less than two minutes into proceedings. He repeated it so much that he started to get on the nerves of the spectators themselves.
I am most certain that the atmosphere felt awkward for the Remo Stars players, whose club has set the bar so high, and have also experienced the feeling at the best grounds in the country, and neighbouring countries during continental games.
As usual, the officiating was poor and this time, it wasn’t even about the referee, but one of his assistants. Remo Stars played three excellent through balls, and all were flagged offside by the same AR, when even the home fans from my end were chorusing ‘ba offside’, meaning, no offside.
The lack of sportsmanship was also on display. Niger Tornadoes goalkeeper, Ifeanyi Nchekwube received medical attention for almost eight minutes in two different faked injuries, because he was hardly involved in play.
Illiteracy of the Fans
The illiteracy of many of the fans, coupled with a fundamental lack of understanding regarding what it means to support their team in the modern day, contributes significantly to matchday disorder.
I arrived at the stadium less than half an hour before kickoff and was genuinely surprised by the chaos: the entrance was heavily crowded, and some fans were aggressively climbing the barricade just to display their tickets and gain access.
The atmosphere was dangerously forceful, one that could easily escalate into a stampede. Amidst angry faces everywhere, I approached a calmer fan to inquire why such a situation existed, and why ticket holders weren’t being allowed smooth entry.
His response was the biggest shock of all. I got to know that some fans would collectively purchase just one regular ticket at #500, then team up in five or more to attempt a forceful entry with the one ticket.
The club has conspicuously not taken any security measures to get things in order, especially given the occasion of the league champions coming to town, knowing that everyone would want to get inside to see what they are made of.
This lack of control is deeply concerning and reminds me of Dennis Bergkamp’s refusal to travel for some away games during his playing career, only that his wasn’t for security reasons, but fear of flying.
Do Remo Stars deserve to win?
Definitely not. The home side were much better, and it’s such a painful sight to see the defending champions become a depleted side.
Only the trio of Obasa Adebiyi, Ahmed Akinyele, and Alex Oyowah made the starting lineup among the regular players that starred in their title-winning campaign. Samson Olasupo came off the bench to add to the famous list.
The above takes me to another highlight of the failure of Nigeria’s league, which is the fact that a move abroad is the dream of every player, and no matter what a club offers, everyone is only awaiting the opportunity to cross the borders.
But who can blame the players?
If, as a club, you create a world-class environment for your players, but they still have to travel to places like Niger Tornadoes over the course of the season, then you can not contest their wish for more security.
Season-ending tackles are overlooked as the referee signalled play on. Time and again the host team would repeat the same, but the referee would only tell you to stand up and continue with the game.
But does anyone expect the top teams to fund the lesser ones? In the end, it is down to the constituted Board to act as intermediary, withhold approval for the use of Bako Kontagora stadium Minna, and other below par venues, for top-flight matches.
For the development to be even, forced measures have to be taken, because certain regions are satisfied with mediocrity, and would continue to wallow in it if allowed to, because it does nothing to their pride, but dents the image of the league, and the standard it wishes to attain.
Kehinde-Hassan Afolabi
