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States should be prudent in spending their scarce resources

Despite repeated warnings by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), many state governments are still embarking on airport projects without considering the implications. “The cost and investment in airports are actually greater than you think. It’s not just about the building,” FAAN Managing Director, Olubunmi Kuku said recently while arguing that the airports being built in some states are unviable. But not many seem to be paying attention despite the fact that only six airports in the country record above 5,000 aircraft movement in a year. All the others depend on just these six airports (Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Enugu) to stay afloat.

When in 2020 some state governments decided to build airports in Anambra, Benue, Ekiti, Nasarawa and Ebonyi while the federal governmentwas being urged to take over the ones built by Kebbi, Jigawa and Gombe States, we queried the rationale behind the decision. The question we posed at the time remains unanswered: In a period of lean resources when the same government is borrowing to meet commitments, why does it have to saddle the country with more cost centres?  

The consequences of building unviable airports are that huge resources, which would have been used to provide essential infrastructure and other amenities are being frittered away. With the astronomical rise in the cost of air tickets in recent years, the number of air travellers has dwindled considerably. We fail to understand the obsession at a period the shortage of aircraft has forced local airlines to streamline their operations thus rendering many of the airports operationally redundant.

In recent times the federal government has taken over some state-built airports and handed them to FAAN to manage, but none is viable. For instance, the cargo airport at Lafia, Nasarawa State, has been abandoned with its facilities allowed to rot away. Conceived by former Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the airport was estimated to have cost about N10 billion with the sole purpose of dumping it on FAAN, as many others have done. Unable to complete that process, most of the facilities and equipment at the airport have now collapsed.

 Today, FAAN is shopping for money to rehabilitate the runways of 17 unviable airports under its management. It is not only that these airports cannot generate revenue to justify the huge investment on them but also that they push aviation agencies like the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and others into spending huge resources recruiting personnel and providing training and logistics to manage redundant airports. Meanwhile, in many states where airports have been built, their primary and secondary school infrastructure have collapsed, essential roads that connect to different parts are dilapidated while most of their residents do not have access to social amenities like hospitals and potable water.

Looking at market projections, there is not going to be sudden rise in air transport in Nigeria because of low per capita income, even if alternative means of transport like rail and road do not expand. We therefore do not understand the rationale behind building airports by the states beyond political consideration. Most of these airports only serve the interest of the governors and other government officials who travel through them with charter services, as scheduled passenger services cannot break even for commercial airlines due to low passenger throughput. 

Today, most of the existing airports rely on obsolete facilities because there are not enough funds to upgrade them.  Now that it is obvious most of these airports are unviable, we expect the federal government to put a cap on such projects.