Taking to his Twitter handle a couple of hours ago, onetime Nigerian lawmaker and human rights crusader, Shehu Sani, has described Governor Dave Umahi’s naming of the newly constructed international airport in Ebonyi State after President Muhammadu Buhari as immoral and sycophantic.
Sani in a post on his verified Twitter handle on Thursday wrote: “The construction of Ebonyi Airport is commendable. Kudos. But It’s immoral & sycophantic to name two airports in the country after Buhari. He should respectfully decline it. The airport should rather be named after Chinua Achebe, Emeka Anyaokwu, Victoria Ironsi, or the Ikemba himself.”
But aside from Sani’s remonstrations, Ikenna Emewu in this piece described the airport as an economic mistake.
That Ebonyi Airport is an economic mistake
That airport in Ebonyi that will be flagged off tomorrow Thursday never impressed me. The idea is purely cosmetic.
I am afraid, it’s not going to add any economic value in the next 10 years unless a very revolutionary step, almost a miracle is taken.
At the point Goodluck Jonathan’s government awarded contracts for renovation and facility upgrade of all airports in Nigeria, we had a total of 26 civil airports.
Be sincere to yourself as someone who frequents aviation services if you hear flights announced to more than 7 airports nationwide.
Of this number, only about four are economically viable, international operations inclusive.
I have been attended to as a passenger under dogon yaro tree at the Abubakar Saad Airport in Sokoto.
Meanwhile, it’s an international airport. Yes, I am sure of seeing an Alitalia airliner revving the engine to go, a certain night at that airport. Most times, that international service, including that at Maiduguri, is used once in a year during Hajj.
Who among us knows that Ibadan and Akure have airports? Who flies there in an entire year?
Airports should not be for decoration or status symbol, worst of all for Nigeria’s 35th poorest state. What percentage of Ebonyi people living in Abakaliki fly in a year? What economic activities bring people to the state in a day, week, or year?
There are foundations to building an economy for meaningful growth. Governor Dave Umahi left those undone. Yes, he built transportation infrastructure, and some of them were overdone.
He has no history of building a classroom block in any secondary school in the state.
I was privy to a booklet of his achievements published in January 2019 during the guber campaign, by virtue of my position then. All through the booklet listing what he achieved, no single classroom block or a hospital ward was mentioned.
We later got a breakdown that showed a particular budget year when the state budgeted something like N4 million for capital projects in education. It was such a miserable figure that can’t do anything.
When Ebonyi young people from a particular part of the state still recruit in droves, as young as 11 years old, to come hawk in Lagos, Abuja, etc till midnight, an airport isn’t a priority.
Former Governor Martin Elechi left a heritage of 26 special secondary schools, two in each LGA. Where are they? How did Umahi implement those? My alma mater was supposed to be one of them. I was there two weeks ago to witness shocking decay. These are the basics.
Until Umahi intervened to pay 50 percent of the fine WAEC imposed on all secondary schools in the state recently, the entire secondary education system was barred from registering for the final certificate examination. Beyond this payment, how did the entire state secondary education system derail into such a decay that incurred a blanket ban under his watch? That is a loud signpost of neglect of the basic.
A day before last Good Friday, we drove through Abakaliki at night. The light array was beautiful. Quite commendable. But 90% of the vehicles we saw on the beautiful roads were rickety Keke Napep. I told someone that the gap between the wonderful road infrastructure and the dirt-poor vehicles is the reality of a grossly lopsided approach to development by the government.
When Governor Willie Obiano was building an airport at Umueri, Anambra State, I told my friends from the state that Obiano was merely chasing clout and vanity. They jeered “nwokem imazikwali ife Anambra bu. O na imaro na Anambra kwechiri ekwechi n’ego”? That implied that Anambra citizens are so rich and should have an airport, also affirming sustainability.
I told them that we cannot sustain an airport to be viable through weekend social trips into Igbo land for funerals and weddings.
They must first be a core economic industry that attracts daily fleets.
I had to draw their attention to the underutilized Enugu airport with a name and pedigree.
I asked how far we have used Owerri and Asaba airports and why a new one should be viable. Please, recall the last time you were at an airport and heard a flight announced to Anambra airport since Air Peace brought two flights to commission it.
They’re things Umahi should have channeled the resources into as basics. After those are established, then an airport comes later.
*Give us a steady power supply, liaising with a DISCO and new energy alternatives
*Bring Nigercem back into operation through partnerships
*Attract another cement plant into Ebonyi and reap a harvest of economic positive deluge when you know there is no single cement plant in the entire Igbo land
*Create FTZs and let middle and small-scale industries flourish, even outsiders trooping into Ebonyi to invest, especially as you did well in building a good network of roads all over the state.
*Create special institutions
*Lobby and woo Igbo in the Nollywood industry to build a film city in the state.
Then, tourism blossoms, and an airport comes later.
At last, that airport that comes on stream tomorrow is going to be another Ajaokuta steel mill and PH and Kaduna petrochemical plants where overhead costs are annually incurred just to pay workers’ salaries when they produce nothing.
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