Enugu airport downgrade, a pursuit of vendetta against southeast

BY FIDEL OKORO

It is grossly uncharitable to link the patriotic efforts of Distinguished Senator Stella Oduah in revamping and upgrading Akanu Ibiam airport in Enugu to international standards, while she was minister of aviation, to the planned closure/downgrade of the important facility by the current minister of aviation.

Senator Oduah undertook the task of executing the upgrade of Akanu Ibiam airport to international standards without abbreviation and with a great sense of patriotism. The facility opened, amid fanfare, for operations without incidents. Even as of 2018, NCAA and FAAN certified the airport safe for operations.

A few days ago, the minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced that the airport would be closed and subsequently downgraded to a local airport. According to him, the facility poses a “security risk.”

He said the security challenges at the airport include “bad runway, proximity to a market and wrong location of the state’s radio mast”.

If these reasons are even viewed at a face value, are they cogent enough to necessitate the downgrade of such an important airport?

These challenges are naturally fixable, and the government of Enugu state has gone to work in relocating the market and removing the radio mast. A few years ago, under this administration, the Abuja airport runway was in very bad shape; it was closed for three months and reopened after repairs were carried out on it. Normal operations resumed afterwards. Fixing a bad runway is not enough reason to downgrade the only international airport in the southeast.

There are whispers that the planned downgrade of the airport may be an economic blockage of the southeast. The region has no seaports; it has no inland port, despite strong appeals to the government to establish one in the region, but now the only exit point to the world for businessmen and residents of the area is being shut.

Did the minister factor in the economic impact of this planned action on the region? As a matter of fact, it appears this is a pursuit of vendetta against the southeast. Currently, Kaduna has an inland port; another one is being constructed in Kano. There is an international airport in Kano; there is one Lagos, and another one in Port Harcourt, where does that leave the southeast?

The minister of aviation must be called to order now. He must desist from fanning the flames of ethnicity, and if he cannot function without prejudice as a public officer he must resign.

Senator Stella Oduah did her national duty diligently when she was called upon to serve her country; she should left out of this obvious pursuit of vendetta against her people. It is seminal to emphasise that the ministry of aviation under Senator Oduah did not handle the airport runway project, which was executed by Mrs Fidelia Njeze, her predecessor.

Oduah supervised the airport terminal and pilgrim terminal building projects. And since she left office, there have been three ministers and seven permanent secretaries after her.

Okoro is a civil rights and justice advocate