By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu
Enugu State Caucus in the House of Representatives has thrown its weight behind the Federal Government(FG)’s plan to concession the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, describing it as a potential catalyst for boom in the South-East economy.
The caucus commended the FG for the initiative, urging it to hasten the concession process to enable the people of the South-East and the nation to benefit from it in earnest.
It equally called on the people of the region to support the concessioning as the only way to guarantee sustainable investment to fully develop the airport into a truly international facility.
The caucus made its position known in a statement signed and issued on Monday, April 28, by the caucus leader, Rep Nnolim Nnaji, as well as Rep Martins Oke, Rep Dennis Agbo, and Rep Anayo Onwuegbu.
Others are Rep Chimaobi Atu, Rep Sunday Umeha, Rep Paul Nnamchi, and Rep Mark Obetta.
They are the representatives of all the eight federal constituencies in the State.
“Due to poor capital investment, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, AIIA, Enugu, remains partially completed and indeed an international airport only in name over two decades since it was designated as such by the Federal Government. Critical components such as cargo terminal, runway, international terminal, among others, are either non-existent or requiring completion or upgrade.
“Businesses and the people of the South-East especially have borne the brunt of these inadequacies, which manifest in the paucity of international flights and intermittent closure of the airport for repair of the runway, as recently witnessed.
“Therefore, we believe that the concessioning of the airport, as currently being processed by the Federal Government, is the only realistic approach to attracting adequate resources to build the requisite infrastructure and expand existing ones to place AIIA in the league of other international airports around the world,” the caucus said.
The statement explained that concessioning was not the same thing as privatisation or sale of the airport as being peddled by some persons, explaining that it was a well-known policy and tenured to Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework, which pulls private capital investment into public infrastructure while government retains ownership and regulatory or supervisory authority.
“We call on the Federal Government to hasten this process, for the people of the South-East region in particular and Nigeria in general to start benefiting from the huge possibilities and blessings it holds.
“Indeed, we also have faith in Federal Government through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to entrust AIIA to a concessionaire with the financial and technical prowess, strong international pedigree and reputation as well as antecedent of verifiable successes to actualise the target. Nothing less than this is acceptable and capable of catalysing the much-needed South-East regional economic prosperity and transformation,” the statement added.
