Have you ever seen a ghost before?
Well, the former national stadium Surulere now at the final stage of its dilapidation,
look like a ghost land. So it is possible that ghosts maybe walking around at
night. Hmm!
Some security men outside the stadium
have reported seeing the intruders ducking at hideous places around the stadium
premises at night, especially behind Nigeria Institute of Sports (NIS)
building. But what could have been these ghost walkers?
I guess ghosts are suppose to be
invisible because they are spirits of men that passed on and don’t have bodies.
Well, I haven’t seen a ghost before, even though I have walked pass some
deserted places at one time or another in my life time.
I remember sometime ago, I saw on
the internet a snapshot of an alleged moving around a filling station at night
in Texas USA. I think it was Yahoo news that published the story. Apart from
that, I’ve heard of ‘Ghost Workers in the Civil Service and government parastatals
in Nigeria, not ‘Ghost Walkers.’
Ghost Workers refers to former employees’
names or non-existing employees names that remain on the payroll of the Civil
Service and government had to pay those salaries every month, which is siphoned
into the coffers of some corrupt officers. From time to time, government
conduct verification exercise (Operation show your Status) to detect some of these
Ghost Workers.
But this new on me, ‘ghost walkers
parading former national stadium Surulere. What came to my mind at first was
Samuel Okwaraji. Are the ghosts spirits of ex-sportsmen that passed on that now
appear back at the stadium where they trained and got lot of fame?
No! Ghost walkers are not dead men,
they are some veteran sportsmen and ex-coaches still living. They served this
nation so well and lived all their lives at the stadium. But two year ago, they
were thrown out of the apartment where they stay. Most of them are no more in
active service and ain’t paid salary. They only live off athletes that come to
the stadium.
With no money and nowhere to go,
these ex-sportsmen roam around Surulere during the day and at night they sneak
back into the stadium and find a place to duck themselves for the night sleep.
They tip toe like ghosts and do not allow anyone to see them go into their
hiding place. Not really a good way to treat our veterans so to say. You may
wonder how long they can go on like that.
Perhaps, you may want to ask why
national sports commission officials decided to quit these veterans since the
stadium is no longer in use?
“I am sorry to say this, but these
veterans are beginning to constitute nuisance around the premises. They are old
and retired. They need to go back to their home. The apartment is an official
one and wasn’t permanently assigned to them. They can’t continue to ghost walk
around the stadium forever.
.
