Govs prioritise unviable airport projects to drain states lean resources
OLASUNKANMI AKINLOTAN writes on the unviable airports being built by governors at the expense of state funds and the suffering masses
Against the expectations of the Nigerian masses, expecting a massive turnaround in the basic needs of life, Nigerian governors have decided to sink multi-billion naira public funds in the proliferation of airports for fancy sake.
As governors continue to pursue these projects, industry experts believe that most of these projects may not succeed and may not be profitable in the long run. Many ex-governors abandoned some of these projects, which are now burdens on their successors.
Findings showed that the six southwest governments both past and present have cited airport projects in their various states sinking over N160bn on the project sites. Southwest states include; Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo and Lagos state.
The five other states highlighted in this report which are Ebonyi, Jigawa, Yobe, Nasarawa, and Bayelsa have also spent close to N209.4bn on airports which have refused to attract aircraft.
Investigations showed that these 11 states have sunk over N369.4bn in these projects in their pursuit of an aerodrome in their different domains.
However, politicians and aviation professionals have classified these dreams as unviable and eventual failures as the aerodromes have refused to attract a considerable number of aircraft, especially for commercial purposes.
Stakeholders say the huge public funds expended on the facilities have amounted to waste. They condemned the state governors and asked Nigerians to hold them responsible for the wastage. Some called on relevant authorities to probe the money spent on the unviable projects.
However, some industry players advised that the facilities be converted into skill acquisition centres for the benefit of the citizens.
Despite the humongous funds spent by these governors, In July, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Olubunmi Kuku, revealed that only three of 22 airports in the country were viable and were contributing to the growth of the aviation sector.
Findings by The PUNCH also show that only four out of over 30 airports in the country are economically viable, contributing N5.57tn to foreign trade in 51 months.
The airports which include; the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, generate about 80 per cent of revenues for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, other airports constitute financial burden to FAAN.
But, despite the challenges facing most of the aerodromes in the country, state governments have continued to pump scarce resources into the construction of more airports with most designating them as “cargo airports.”
Industry experts said governors embark on airport projects against the advice of professionals in pursuit of political gains and stealing of public funds.
Ogun State’s non-operating airports
In 2007, former Governor Gbenga Daniel conceived the idea of Gateway Agro Cargo Airport at Ilishan-Remo. He was unable to kick-start the project before he left office in 2011.
His successor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, had a different idea for the project. In 2018, he proposed to construct a passenger airport in the Wasimi area of the state. Amosun’s administration started the groundwork and built a terminal building for the airport but could not complete it before his tenure ended in 2019.
The current governor of the state, Dapo Abiodun, however, in 2021 reverted to ex-governor Daniel’s planned agro-cargo in Ilishan-Remo, his hometown.
Abiodun and Amosun, who have reportedly not been on speaking terms since the 2019 governorship election, renewed their hostility when the Senate Committee on Aviation, led by Smart Adeyemi ( Kogi West), visited the state to inspect the passenger airport projects.
But while playing host to the Senate Committee on Aviation, in March 2021, Abiodun informed the lawmakers of the plan to continue with the agro cargo airport floated by Daniel.
He said the agro-cargo airport project had a lot of potential.
Later, PUNCH gathered that the state government had refocused the airport to accommodate both passengers and cargo.
However, documents downloaded from the state’s procurement website before it was later deleted from the website showed that over N97.2bn was earmarked for the yet-to-be-completed airport.
Sources familiar with the development told our reporter that the money had been spent on the project.
In the document obtained by our correspondent, the sums of N49,678,075,522 and N29,599,563,852 were budgeted separately for the airport.
Meanwhile, the state government had, on three occasions, failed to fulfil its promise to complete the airport and commence flight operations on the facility.
Multiple experts told this newspaper that with the current state of the airport, the aerodrome cannot be inaugurated yet. But a visit to the airport by our correspondent in December 2024, showed that a lot has been done in terms of infrastructure on the airport site.
Osun State
In Osun State, documents sighted by this newspaper revealed that the expanse of land on which the airport was to be located had been acquired in 1936 for aircraft flight operations.
Under former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the contract for the airport was awarded to Aeronautics Engineering at the cost of N4.5bn in October 2012. It was revised to N11bn to accommodate more features.
Checks by the correspondent to ascertain the address or contact of the company showed that the company is either not in existence or provided fake information to the Corporate Affairs Commission during registration.
Both phone numbers and contact addresses provided could not be reached.
Of this amount, the state government noted that it had spent N3.6bn. Thereafter, the project got abandoned mid-way, prompting the need for a re-award.
The PUNCH reliably gathered that about N12bn of Osun indigenes’ funds had been sunk into the construction site.
Ekiti State
In the same flow, the immediate past Governor, Kayode Fayemi, expended over N16.6bn public funds on the Akure airport, but the airport has also refused to attract aircraft over its non-viability.
When the governor conceived the idea, it was greeted by criticisms from stakeholders both in the state and beyond but the governor vetoed the cargo airport which is currently not in use.
As of January 2023, the Special Adviser to Governor Biodun Oyebanji on Budget, Economic Planning and Performance Management, Niyi Adebayo, revealed that N16.6bn had been spent on the yet-to-be-completed facility.
Meanwhile, In December the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority granted the aerodrome the permission to operate non-scheduled operations. This operation is the same as that which takes place in private airstrips granted to individuals.
Ekiti Airport
Lagos
In Lagos, the state government during the Babatunde Fashola administration first mooted the idea of a new airport in 2009 under a Public Private Part¬nership arrangement.
In 2011, a report by local newspapers, where the then Commissioner for Commerce and Industry was quoted, Adeniyi Oyemade, noted that N102bn equivalent had been voted to the project.
However, whether the allocation was eventually spent or withdrawn cannot be independently verified as of the time of this report. But not much was done by the Fashola government and his immediate successor.
Barely two years ago, the Lagos State Government announced its readiness to commence the construction of a new airport in the Lekki area of the state.
The plan by the Lagos State Government to build an additional airport in the state was said to complement the existing Murtala Muhammed Airport.
A 3,500 hectares of land, expected to accommodate 350 aircraft as well as about five million passengers yearly was set aside for the project.
Meanwhile, industry experts agreed that the state required at least an additional airport to optimally serve the millions of air travellers emanating from the state alone, but expressed divergent views of its implication on the revenue generation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
N102bn was budgeted for the execution of the aerodrome.
It was gathered that the airport when completed would ease the traffic gridlock in Lagos metropolis and help to meet the corporate travel needs within the axis, given the growing number of businesses such as Dangote Refinery and Kellogg’s located in and around the Lekki Free Zone.
Both Ondo and Oyo states have Federal Government airports that were commissioned in 1986 and 1982 respectively.
Both airports are classified as unviable but they still receive commercial flights, though not frequently.
Recently, the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, proposed the upgrading of the airport in Ibadan to an international standard but this move has been met with criticisms from both experts and air transport watchers.
In 2017, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State commenced his move to build an airport in the state. Six years later, the governor renewed his zeal for the project, A cargo airport in Umueri, in the Anambra East Local Government Area.
Anambra State is surrounded by airports in Delta, Imo, and Enugu states but the governor embarked on the project.
Though many believed the project was new in the plans of the government and needless, the governor in April 2017 flagged off the airport project.
At the unveiling ceremony in April 2017, Obiano said that the government wanted to create an airport city in the state with a model that would accommodate two runways, an aviation fuel dump, an airport hotel, an industrial business park, an international convention centre, as well as a facility for aircraft maintenance.
He had initially boasted that the airport with a cost implication of $2bn as at when it was conceived would join some of the most advanced airports in the world with a capacity to land any of the most sophisticated vessels known to man.
In 2021, the state government said N6bn was spent and not $2b as alleged in some quarters.
Also, the immediate past aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, conveyed the approval for the construction of the Ebonyi airport through correspondence to then Governor David Umahi, now Minister of Works. The letter was signed by the Director of Safety and Technical Policy, Capt Talba Alkali, on behalf of the ministry in 2019.
At the commissioning of the airport, Umahi revealed that he spent over N36bn to build the airport, located in Onueke, Ezza South Local Government Area. But as at the time of filing this report, the airport situation is best described as comatose.
In Jigawa State, ex-governor Sule Lamido, also pumped N4bn to build an airport for the state, one that was commissioned in 2014 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The airport facility is located less than 100km from Aminu Kano International Airport, making experts describe it as wasteful spending.
Also, in Bayelsa, former Governor Seriake Dickson spent N70bn on the construction of an airport which began in 2012 and was completed in February 2019.
The amount spent on the airport by the governor has been disputed by some stakeholders, among which was the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomole.
Oshiomhole had stated that the project gulped over N100bn but Dickson insisted that it was done at the rate of N70bn.
Same for Yobe State where the transport commissioner, Abdullahi Kukuwa, had recently told newsmen that the state spent more than N18bn on the unused airport project initiated in 2017.
Like its counterpart, the Nasarawa cargo airport project was initiated in December 2015 during the second tenure of a former Governor Umaru Al-Makura, who said he had the vision to open the state for investment opportunities.
The project was estimated at N10bn and was to ease cargo traffic at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja because Nasarawa is the closest state bordering the FCT.
Experts speak
On his part, Capt John Okakpu said it is needless for any state to build an airport without considering the passenger traffic available to it. He added that aside from the Anambra airport, almost all of the other mentioned airports should be converted to skill acquisition centres or any form of public facility that will be of use to the people.
“Immediately these governors see a colleague that has embarked on such a project even when the fellow did not achieve success, you will see the others doing the same, but my question is, why should a right-thinking human want to replicate failure? In all, it is to steal.
“For instance, before you think of building an airport you should be able to ascertain the passenger traffic. It is not rocket science, you must do it even before any other study.”
Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Centurion Security Limited, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd.), echoed similar sentiments, questioning the approval process and the lack of a solid business plan behind these airport projects.
“When were they approved by the National Civil Aviation Authority? What was the business plan behind it?” he asked, stressing the importance of having a clear operational base and understanding the potential passenger traffic.
On his part, an NCAA-licensed commercial pilot with over 30 years of experience, Captain John Okakpu, stated that considering the proximity of States to each other, the idea of building airports by state was a wrong move.
“That airport is halfway to Ibadan and the same as Lagos. Why should anyone now go to Remo for the sake of an airport when there is an airport in Ibadan and Lagos? Ibadan has two airports.
“The cargo part of that airport is the most useless thing to think of. We learnt they are targeting Lagos, How can you be doing that?
“For an aircraft, once it takes off, it has to fly for 40–45 minutes before it lands at an average because the engine has to have a complete circle; if not, that engine will die. And a piece of that engine costs $30m-$40m.
“That means that this state cannot be targeting traffic from neighbouring states; rather, many of them will be thinking of international traffic, if that is their thinking can that be right? An airport that is yet to get it right domestically shouldn’t be thinking of an international status in the first place.
“Who in his right senses will now drop cargo in Lagos and then fly to Ogun, Oyo or even Osun State for about 10–20 minutes risking $30–$40m engine? How will that happen? When politicians want to eat their money, they don’t think. Most of those airports will not function.”
According to Okakpu, the Abuja airport operates with less than five per cent of cargo available, which is mostly Federal Government contracts, such as the importation of ammunition or central bank money printed and flown into the country, “ Even the current carriage capacity the top five airports has is more than the available cargos.”
