…Govt, opposition, bicker over upgrade, inauguration, viability of facility
From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Last December, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) wrote to the Ebonyi State government notifying it that the Wilberforce Chuba Okadigbo Airport, Onueke, had been certified to operate chartered flights and private jets, only.
It was for that reason that the 206 students being sponsored for overseas scholarship by the state government were airlifted to the United Kingdom from the airport by Air Peace, last Saturday.
Before this period, Commissioner for Aviation Technology, Mrs. Ngozi Obichukwu, disclosed early this year that the airport received over 20 aircraft during the Yuletide.
That notwithstanding, the state-built airport has continued to receive criticisms from many members of the public.
Critics of the multibillion-naira airport argue that it was not needed in a state where poverty is its biggest challenge, coupled with high internal and external debts. They also said that Ebonyi was barely one hour’s drive from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Enugu. So, according to them, the nearness of the Ebonyi airport to the Enugu airport made the former an unwise investment.
The critics said, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ebonyi has the highest poverty ratio in Southern Nigeria, with a staggering 80% of its close to for million estimated population classified as living in poverty.
They further argued that the state was one of highest indebted states in the country, owing external debt of $92,655,060.01 or N157 billion, while its cumulative internal debt stands at over N70 billion, aside from various commitments to some other domestic financial institution.
The data, according to the airport’s critics, was released in June last year but the state government, represented by the commissioner for information and state orientation, said it has never borrowed a dime to run the state and was not ready to do so, saying the debts were inherited, and described the data as unverifiable
The Chuba Okadigbo Airport was constructed by the David Umahi administration. Umahi, who is now the Minister of Works, said it gulped N36 billion but his successor, Francis Nwifuru, disclosed that the airport cost N42 billion.
The airport was inaugurated by Umahi a few months to the end of his administration but it was not operational on account of its defective runway, which didn’t allow aircraft to land because of the way it was constructed.
The runway was constructed with concrete and it was very difficult for aircraft to land there. So, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority closed the airport, which forced Nwifuru to start rebuilding the runway.
The governor said he couldn’t have abandoned the airport considering the billions of naira already was sunk into it.
About N20 billion was spent by the current administration in the state to rehabilitate the runway.
Social media was awash with a viral video of people conducting church services at the departure lounge of the airport and it was rumoured that it had been converted to a church.
However, the state’s commissioner for aviation technology, Ngozi Obichukwu, debunked the rumour, describing it as false and baseless.
She explained the staff of the ministry usually hold monthly prayers to re-dedicate and smoothen the commencement of flight operations at the airport.
“Staff of the ministry held a prayer service to pray for the smooth landing and take-off of aircraft conveying prominent Nigerians who came to Ebonyi for the burial of the first civilian governor of Abia, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu,” she explained.
She further said flight activities have fully commenced at the airport since the rehabilitation of the runway, calling on the general public and air travellers to patronise the airport to boost the internally generated revenue of the state.
She averred that the essence of the monthly prayer service by the staff of the ministry was to seek God’s presence and protection for all travellers, especially in the yuletide season.
Obichukwu described purveyors of fake news as enemies of the state government, adding: “Those carrying the false information are those who are not happy with the massive infrastructural development and enormous empowerment going on in the state by the governor, Francis Nwifuru.
“Gov. Nwifuru has demonstrated capacity, commitment, prudence and transparency in all his dealings in the state.”
While the video was trending, the 3.1km upgraded runway of the airport was inaugurated by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu.
Mrs. Tinubu noted that the runway was significant to the scheduled December 13, 2024, commencement of commercial flight operations at the airport and commended Nwifuru for its rehabilitation.
“I am really glad we came, and I see how beautiful Nigeria is. We, you know, we don’t promote ourselves. What I saw today, I was even sharing that we went to Burundi. I thought they did well.
“For a state in Nigeria, your runway was better than what I was even commending them for. We want to thank God for the good work the governor has been doing, and let me recognize the wife of the Vice President and also the former Senate President, Senator Pius Anyim.
“I thank God for today, and it is with this honour that I commission this runway to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind. We pray that this runway, planes will land here safely, they will take off safely, there will never be any accident on this runway, and this runway will bring businesses to Ebonyi State,” she said.
Nwifuru thanked President Bola Tinubu for the assistance he gave the Ebonyi, which enabled the state to upgrade the runway.
He said: “We came in, on the 29th day of May, 2023, and as of then, we used concrete to build this runway. We didn’t know, as a state, that concrete is not accepted to be used to build runway.
“And when we came in, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority closed the airport, that this place was not a place that a plane could land, and we decided to start rebuilding the runway. Based on the support and the help of your husband, by the special grace of God, we did the runway and completed it to be one of the best runways in this country, Nigeria.”
After the inauguration, Nwifuru’s main challenger in 2023 governorship election in the state and candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ifeanyi Odii, picked holes in it, wondering why an airport that was deemed to have been completed and inaugurated should be inaugurated the second time, and accused the governor of wasting taxpayers money on the airport.
Odii, in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Moses Idika, accused Nwifuru of wasting the resources of the state on the airport. He disclosed that, after spending about N20 billion on the rehabilitation of the airport runway, the governor wasted more billions by pulling the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and wives of governors from different states of the federation to the state to inaugurate the upgraded runway.
“Perhaps the most astonishing show of profligacy amid excruciating poverty and hunger is the wasteful spending of Ebonyi State’s resources on the Chuba Okadigbo Airport, Onueke, at the slightest snap of a finger.
“Recall that the airport was inaugurated on May 26, 2023, by then President Muhammadu Buhari. However, by September 2023, Nwifuru announced that he had awarded a N13 billion contract. Already information emanating from government sources indicate that close to N20 billion was spent for the rehabilitation of a three-month old runway!
“This is aside from the fact that just four months earlier, in April 2023, then Governor David Umahi announced that Ebonyi State Government spent N36 billion to build the airport (unofficial report is over N42 billion).
“Despite these humongous amounts that were said to have been spent in building the airport, on Friday, November 15, 2024, Nwifuru again rolled out the drums to commission yet again the runway of Chuba Okadigbo Airport.
“This time, Nwifuru invited Mrs. Tinubu, who came to Abakaliki with a retinue of other first ladies and top government functionaries, and with that visit yet another set of billions of Ebonyi State allocation have been spent on duplicitous re-commissioning of a runway that is barely one year old.
“Airports are economically strategic investments that are planned and backed up with data of return on investment (ROI), but since the Chuba Okadigbo Airport was constructed, no kobo has been generated for Ebonyi State and there is no plan anywhere on how the airport can become economically viable,” he lamented.
Odii accused Nwifuru of non-performance, arguing that since May 29, 2023, when he took over, the state has suddenly taken a nose-dive in all possible parameters of assessment.
“From the economy, infrastructure, education, health services, environment, human capital development and sanitation, there is hardly any visible plan to extricate the people of the state from the stranglehold of poverty, disease, ignorance and mass starvation.
“According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Ebonyi State has the highest poverty ratio in Southern Nigeria, with a staggering 80% of its close to four million estimated population classified as living in poverty.
“According to data sourced from the office of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abuja, as published on their website, Ebonyi State is one of the highest indebted states in Nigeria.
“According to DMO data, as at June 30, 2024, Ebonyi State is owing external debt of $92,655,060.01 or N157 billion. Ebonyi State’s cumulative internal debt stands at over N70 billion, that is, aside from various commitments to some other domestic financial institution.
“In fact, a walk on the now dirty and unkept streets of Abakaliki clearly shows evidence of the grim reality facing Ndi Ebonyi today.
“An unfortunate fact is that Ebonyi State under the command of Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru is currently bleeding, haemorrhaging and the lives of the people are thinning out in droves due to hunger and poverty. Ebonyi State today is seemingly directionless,” he said.
However, the state government has absolved Nwifuru of high-profile debts in the state. The government said the governor has been running the state since he came on board without borrowing.
Commissioner for information, Jude Okpor, disclosed this while reacting to Odii’s claims. Okpor said: “The state government wishes to place on record once again that, as a state that is blessed with enormous natural resources, the idea of beating whatever structural impediments that hindered the commencement of flight operations in the said airport prior to the inauguration of the present administration is a far better and progressive option than abandoning same.
“His Excellency had in several fora assured Ebonyi people that his administration will not only perfect the project from the stage he met it but finally put it to use in other to open up the state to the outside/global community towards welcoming already waiting business opportunities and other numerous global investments, hence the need for the administration of His Excellency to sustain the project to fruition.
“The commissioning of the runway by the wife of the President, which is queried by Odii is therefore, not only befitting, but a right step in the right direction.
“We are aware that Odii is one of the enemies of the state who had expected the enormous investment of the state on the airport to lay waste, but we will continue to disappoint them. In no distant time, when the state government unveils their plan in the aviation sector, their nightmare will surely nosedive.”
The commissioner described the data of Odii on the debt profile of the state as unverifiable and urged the public to disregard it. He argued that governor Nwifuru has refused to take any loan facility and has been criticized for refusing to bow to all forms of enticing loan offers.
“Without giving credence to the author’s ‘unverified’ data and source, particularly as it relates to the debt profile of the state, it is pertinent to state that the present administration since inauguration, had kept aloof of all forms of borrowing, and is rather criticized for refusing to bow to all forms of enticing loan offers.
“It therefore smacks of bitter incoherence on the side of the author for attributing the state’s current debt status to Nwifuru’s administration.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the business of governance is fundamentally anchored on effective and transparent budget implementation. As we had severally made Ebonyi people to know, the unbroken and encouraging statistical reports in favour of Ebonyi State which was released by BudgiT, a globally recognised budget tracking organisation, in 2023, few months after the inauguration of His Excellency,” he submitted.