Nigeria: No to New Airports

20 January 2016
editorial

THE craze for state-owned airports by some governors amid the economic hardship in the country shows not only the level of insensitivity among the ruling class but poor capacity in governance. Prioritisation seems to be alien to them, while they are at home with profligacy. Talking of bogus airport projects when most states can't meet basic statutory responsibilities to their people is the worst display of ego-tripping in power, visionlessness and even criminality. Certainly, the governors cannot be working in the public interest but for themselves and their cronies if the suffering masses who have no need for airports do not matter as much as the few.

Reports say the governors of Osun, Bayelsa, Abia, Ogun, Anambra, Ekiti and Nasarawa, are building new airports against a wave of public discontent. Some have given spurious reasons such as employment generation and increased revenue to justify such airport projects. But how many jobs can a domestic airport create and how much revenue could be generated? Governor Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, for instance, who is planning to build a N17 billion airport in his village, Kwandare, already flanked by three nearby airports in Makurdi, Abuja and Jos, argues that the airport would create jobs and boost farmers' income with the export of their agricultural produce. Indeed!

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