Ododo’s Misplaced Priority
Construction of the Kogi State International Airport at Zariagi, outside Lokoja, is about 20 per cent complete, with heavy machinery working day and night. But there’s another group working night and day—the critics of Governor Usman Ododo. They are the ones now asking: why build an airport while the roads residents use every day stay in poor condition?
The Federal Ministry of Aviation approved the project with the backing of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, and CCECC Nigeria Limited is building it. Based on reports, it will handle passengers and international cargo, and state officials want it to serve as a diversion airport for Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
Kogi is not starting from nothing. Many people don’t know that the state has five airstrips, none able to take commercial jets: Obajana, owned by Dangote; Ijumu, owned by Mangal Cement; Adogo in Ajaokuta; Egbe, built by missionaries; and the disused old Lokoja strip.
To put things in perspective, two of those strips belong to cement producers. Cement leaves the state mostly by road, so even the companies with private airstrips depend on the same highways residents complain about.
An international cargo airport multiplies that dependence. Freight landing at Zariagi must reach farms and markets by road, and passengers must reach Lokoja the same way. The airport can only be as useful as the roads connecting it.
Kogi is situated where the Niger and Benue rivers meet and links several parts of the country. Thus, its roads carry traffic well beyond its own residents. For farmers, a bad road means produce reaching the market late; for patients, it means a longer trip to a hospital.
The upside is real. An airport can bring connectivity, investment and jobs, but only if passengers and cargo materialise and the state can fund it without starving other needs. Even so, the order of spending is the issue.
With federal approval and 20 per cent built, the airport will probably proceed, so a funded road programme with published priorities and deadlines would answer critics better than any defence of the airport.
This post was originally published on this site
