Clamour For Federal Govt’s Takeover Of Airports

Three states-Ebonyi, Gombe and Nasarawa- have asked the federal government to take-over their airports, a request the central government has acceded to. The implication is that in the days ahead, the federal government will be compelled to cough out billions of naira as refund to these states. Nasarawa for instance, is asking for N10 billion from the federal government for the takeover of Lafia Cargo airport.

One fundamental thread in this is the fact that building airports in these three states are, unarguably, political as those airports are economically non-viable ventures. We say this because there already in place airport facilities that can serve the needs of these states. For instance, Ebonyi can easily connect through the Enugu airport; Gombe has the Bauchi airport while Benue airport can and should serve Nasarawa.

Although airports are expected to generate enough revenue, a viability check on Nigerian airports showed that of the 22 airports, only those in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja, all of which are operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria-FAAN-, attain a level of revenue generation that can classify them as economically viable.

In the opinion of this newspaper, the decision of some governors to build airports in their states is self-serving. Most of them are essentially white elephant structures to boost sagging ego. This is even more so when it is considered that airport projects anywhere in the world are capital-intensive investments. Why should an agrarian state without robust finances earmark huge money for an airport project which, at best, serves the elite instead of channeling the funds to provision of water, power, rural roads and other basics that will serve a larger part of the population?

It is clear that the present administration in Ebonyi, and the previous ones in Gombe and Nasarawa states, did not do viability studies before embarking on the construction of the airports. Had the governments of these states did that, they would have known that such was a clear case of misplacement of priority.

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In fairness to Governors Abdullahi Sule and Muhammadu Yahaya, their predecessors, former governors Umaru Tanko Al-Makura and Danjuma Goje respectively, built the airports in Nasarawa and Gombe states. It may be safe to assume that Governors Sule and Yahaya, both serial entrepreneurs, would have done viability study before contemplating embarking on building an airport.

However, Ebonyi state’s Governor Dave Umahi seems to be notorious for misplacement of priority. Without doing due diligence to ascertain its viability and the ability of the state to maintain it, he plunged into building of an international airport, only to ask for its takeover by the central government. His predecessor in office, Dr Sam Egwu made the same mistake of building a world trade centre in Abakaliki.

We recall that last year, Umahi wrote to the federal government seeking a N10 billion loan to purchase airport equipment. While admitting that the state does not have money to buy the airport equipment, Umahi said, on completion, Ebonyi would hand over the airport to the Federal Government to concession and supervise.

Only recently, Umahi gleefully told Nigerians that his administration has completed the construction of a N1.2 billion Governor’s lodge (another bogus project) in Abuja and is scheduled for commissioning.

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According to data released by the Debt Management Office-DMO-, Ebonyi state has a debt profile of N41.6 billion as at 31 March 2022. In 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics ranked the state as the fourth poorest state in Nigeria and the least in the South east, regarding economic development. Yet the governor has the audacity to expend over N1 billion on the building of a Governor’s Lodge in Abuja!

The fact that existing airports are not as viable as they should be is enough of a disincentive for any governor wishing to build new one. Indeed, the challenge is on how to make the existing airports viable hence establishing new ones, especially by agrarian states with very low business profile is pure misplacement of priority.

It is inexplicable, in our view, that the federal government, even though grappling with a huge debt burden in the face of dwindling revenue, is taking up additional liability while paying more on debt servicing.

Could the federal government and, more specifically, the president who approves the request of take-over be driven by partisan consideration since in these three states, all the governors are members of the ruling APC?

In the considered opinion of this newspaper, the federal government, in accepting to take over these airports, is giving some governors the impetus to embark on non-viable projects with the intent of asking the central government to take them over.