Ebonyi Airport as White Elephant Project

The Chuba Okadigbo International Airport, Onueke, in Ebonyi State has come under heavy criticism from concerned citizens of the state, alleging that so much money have been expended on the project, which according to them, has the least value to the people of the state. The development has created a wave of disappointment in the people, as the facility is yet to start operations, reports Chinedu Eze

Concerned citizens of Ebonyi State are not happy about the slow development of the Chuba Okadigbo Airport, located in Onueke.

At first, when the airport was being built, their hopes and expectations were high, with the strong belief that when the airport is completed, it would create jobs, spruce up the image of the state and boost its economy, since investors could easily access the state to establish businesses.

But almost one and half years after the airport was unveiled by the former governor of the state who is currently the Minister for Works, Dave Umahi, it is still non-functional and what stirred the angst of many is the fact that after opening the airport, it was closed again for the rebuilding of its runway.

Many informed citizens of the state are ached by the fact that the airport gulped a lot of money, estimated to reach N62 billion, yet it is not operational. The few personnel employed there, idle away every day and to make the matter worse, recently a prayer session took off from the departure lounge of the airport, where they invited God to come and make the airport functional, thus fueling the fear that the facility has been converted to a church, which sparked the ire of those who opposed the building of the airport ab initio.

The Criticism

There has been severe criticism by aviation stakeholders and other Nigerians against the development of airports by state governments. They noted that building airport is capital intensive and most often, it does not bring justifiable returns, even though airports are very important infrastructure that aid development of any nation.

In Nigeria, due to the critical need of airports, the federal government built airports in different parts of the country and among the states, some of them at different epochs in history considered the establishment of airports to enhance the development of their states. This was what gave birth to what is today, Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri, the Uyo Airport in Akwa Ibom State and also the Asaba airport in Delta State.

What is strategic about these airports is that they filled a vacuum in the sense that there was existing market for them. Before Anambra built airport at Umueri, the Asaba airport catered to the air movement of Onitsha businessmen and women. Onitsha is a commercial city in South East. The Uyo airport was also strategic because the state is major oil producing state and needed quick movement of oil and gas personnel and easy movement of logistics. There was also a vacuum in Owerri, which makes the airport the busiest after Lagos, Abuja and Kano.

All other airports built by the state governments have remained a burden, except Anambra Airport, which became busy and profitable to airlines, from the first time it started operation. But the difference between Ebonyi and Anambra people is that Anambra citizens have higher disposable income compared to that of Ebonyi. Many insiders project that the Ebonyi airport would be like most of the airports built in northern part of the country, which were later given to the federal government, which handed them over to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to manage.

Umahi, at the opening of the airport last year, announced that it has been taken over by the federal government but critics said that it was a political talk because there has not been any indication that the federal government has taken it over. If it has, they observed, it would have been handed over to FAAN. Umahi also said that the federal government would refund the state all the funds expended on the project. There was an indication of that under the Buhari administration but this is Tinubu administration and many are skeptical that the new President may go along with the old agreement.

Buoying State’s Economy

Spokesman of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, which is an opposition party, Onwe Chika Onwe, who is primed to become the new Chairman of the party in the state, told THISDAY that many Ebonyi citizens at the beginning supported the project when the former governor assured that it would be a cargo airport as well as passenger service airport. To the people’s understanding, as cargo airport it would be moving perishables and other farm produce from the state to big markets in Nigeria and as well as function as passenger airport.

Onwe felt that the airport taking those roles would rev up the state’s economy but that high expectation has been dashed by prolonged inactivity of the facility.

According to him, “When the hidden agenda started unfolding we realised it. The former governor, Umahi told us that the airport cost N36 billion, but we later learnt that he spent N40 billion. He must have done all his over bloated budget. I went to the airport but what I saw did not give me any hope, but when I complained they said that I was talking like as an opposition.”

Rebuilding the Runway

Onwe also said that when the runway was condemned as not meeting the safety standard because of the way it was built, the current governor, Francis Nwifuru, claimed that he rebuilt the runway with N22 billion, which in total is N62 billion, according to him.

“But in my thinking I am not hopeful that it will work. It is not going to work. They have already started doing church programme there. The only flights that came through the airport were the fights that brought the Chairman of All Progressives Congress, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who attended the burial of the former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu. Government has continued playing politics, using the airport as soft target and conduit pipe. He has spoken about Ebonyi state establishing its own airline but nothing has happened since then. Maybe, they thought that establishing airline is like going into bus transport business. This is not motor park business

“As far as I am concerned, Ebonyi state does not have airport and they are not going to have one in the nearest future. How can you invest such huge amount of money in a project that has no returns. Imagine that you invested that money in any other business, at least 10, 000 people will be directly and indirectly engaged. Our people are the poorest in the South East. It did not make sense investing such huge money in airport,” he said.

Rising Hope

But contrary to Onwe’s pessimism, the Commissioner of Aviation in the state, Mrs. Ngozi Okechukwu, told THISDAY that the completed asphalted 3 .1 km Chuba Okadìgbo International Airport runway would be inaugurated today, Friday November, 15, 2024 by the wife of the President, Her Excellency Senator Oluremi Tinubu.

Although she did not respond when THISDAY enquired about the certification of the runway by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), it is believed that the runway was rebuilt in accordance to NCAA specifications after the initial effort was condemned and that soon it could be put to use.

THISDAY findings also indicate that due to the paucity of equipment, Nigerian carriers may not be inclined to operate schedule services to the airport, but can do charter services; unless the Governor of the state would have certain kind of arrangement that could offset the cost of 60 per cent of the aircraft seats anytime it operates to the airport because in terms of load factor, passenger traffic to the airport would not justify schedule flight service.

Unprofitable Airports

Talking about states funding airport projects, the Executive Secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART), Olu Ohunayo, told THISDAY that airports built by the federal government or the state government should be evaluated for the services it provides; not for profitability. So, the utilization should justify the establishment of such airport, 

“Sincerely, we must accept that any airport built by any government, local, state or federal, is a social service effort, not for profitability. And if you would build an airport for people to fly directly to your state capital, there is nothing wrong with it. I don’t have any objection with state government building airports.The problem I have is the size and the cost they take out of the state coffers, which is exorbitant and are too big for them to even manage. Because what is standard is for them to take big land for the airport, then you start small. So, as the airport is growing, you begin to expand your facility.

“But then without flights, you see them going on to build gigantic infrastructure, very big runway, and when you don’t use it, quite naturally the things will begin to decay and degenerate. And it is so shocking that the immediate past governor of that state, who is an architect, who is handling works now, and did very, very well, could not supervise the runway under his own nose, and another N22 billion was spent again on the runway of the airport. Granted, the airport is there, it is a public-owned airport, I think we should watch and support the state government in seeing to the operations of that airport,” he said.

In order to put the airport into use, Ohunayo suggested that the Ebonyi State government should not only be waiting for scheduled flights, it should be able to push for different activities to be taking place at the airport, maybe air clubs, non-scheduled operators, adding that these are the things that will start to make the airport functional before they would be able to generate enough traffic for schedule service

“So, the airport is not a waste, sincerely, it is not a waste, but it is expensive and that is unreasonable,” he further said.

Many Ebonyi citizens have their fingers crossed and although some of them are angry, but they are among those who are waiting and hoping that regular flights will start at the airport soon.