State governments and white elephant airports

Any state government planning to establish an airport should do due diligence with a view to establishing the viability to avoid the consequences of an ill-thought-out project on its economy and the wellbeing of the people. There are indications that majority of the airports springing up across the country may end up as white elephant projects when the targeted revenue which is central to their establishment becomes unrealizable and maintenance of the facilities becomes a drain on the public purse.

This is particularly advisable now that every state is in dire need of money to fulfill myriad of financial obligations, including payment of newly increased salary and tackling the hardship Nigerians are suffering due to the economic downturn in the country. It is worrisome how state governments across the nation invest billions of naira of taxpayers’ money in airport projects with very low passenger and aircraft traffic, making the viability of the projects questionable.

A breakdown of state airport expenditures, as reported in the media, shows that Bayelsa State spent N60 billion on its airport, Akwa Ibom spent N20 billion, Delta and Jigawa spent N17 billion each, while Bauchi and Kebbi pumped N15 billion each into their own project. Other states on the same journey are Ogun (N20 billion), Ekiti (N20 billion), Abia (N40 billion), Nasarawa (N40 billion), Osun (N40 billion) and Zamfara (N62.8 billion).It was also reported that Anambra State’s cargo airport cost N10 billion as Wachakal Airport in Damaturu, Yobe State, costs N18 billion (although it is yet to be completed) and Dutse International Airport, Jigawa, costs N20 billion.

An analysis of the air passenger traffic in the country,which reveals that many of the 32 airports spread across the geographical zones were probably not ripe for establishment, shows that despite the billions of naira pumped into them, only five airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu generate 89.7 per cent while the remaining 10 per cent are shared by the remaining 27 state airports.It is on record that out of the over 16 million passengers that were airlifted into and out of the country in 2022, about 89.7 per cent of them were carried by the five airports listed above.Only 10.3 per cent were carried by the other 27 airports within the period. With the passenger traffic reducing to 15.89 million in 2023, according to data, it has become obvious that there are no enough passengers to patronise the airports being built across the states.

While it is reasonable to argue that the airports are social amenities for the benefit of the people, the timing of their establishment may be wrong, especially when there are reasons to believe that the projects may fail to yield returns amid large sums of money to be spent on maintenance. It will amount to misallocation of scarce resources that can lead to avoidable inefficiencies in the economy. When this happens, the people suffer because there may not be enough money to be spent on the immediate and pressing needs for their survival.

In what qualifies as querying the establishment of some airports in the country, an expert said: “Akure Airport in Ondo State, less than 40 minutes-drive from Ado Ekiti, has not recorded up to 200, 000 passenger traffic in the last 10 years. Why would Ekiti build another airport without finding out how much of the 200,000 passenger traffic is from the state? It is the same thing with Umueri in Anambra State in between Enugu and Asaba. Ebonyi is next door to Enugu; Abia plans an airport between Owerri and Port Harcourt.So are many like that in the north, especially Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, among others.”

Another challenge is poor maintenance of these airports as the majority of the state governments do not have the requisite skills or structures to do so. Some states are said to be passing the maintenance task to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which is still overburdened with maintaining its primary airports across the country. Most worrisome is the fact that many of the state-owned airports do not have the capacity to generate enough revenue and cannot attract concessionaires due to low state gross domestic product (GDP), poor status of its citizens, low propensity for businessmen to gravitate there, or other social and commercial considerations. Really, how many people in Nigeria travel by air? Most of those who do so are either corporate or government officials whose journeys are mostly official and the fares paid by their employers.

We advise that the state government should set their priorities right. Political achievement should not be the basis for investing billions of naira on projects that clearly lack prospects for success and sustainability by our leaders. Where it is obvious that the passenger traffic is low, and that not all should have separate airports now, particularly among clearly contiguous states, what is sensible to do is embrace the services of the closest airport, invest in alternative means of transportation and save the humongous amount of money voted for the airports to develop other critical sectors of the economy.

What Nigerians need urgently are food, good health, security and employment opportunities. Majority of Nigerians, including many of them who still have the financial muscle to travel by air, are very ready to travel by land if the roads are good and there is security. Some people patronize airports simply because they are afraid of being kidnapped on the road and possibly killed. Most of the roads across the country are in bad condition, making travellers vulnerable to attack by terrorists and other criminals. The government should use the billions of naira to rehabilitate the roads and construct new ones that will make travelling by land a good and less costly alternative to travelling by air.

Priority should be given to agriculture for mass production of food and employment as a way of mitigating the hardship in the country. Only a viable airport can provide employment, and even for a limited number of people among the millions of jobless citizens. A hungry population will be a wrong target for patronage of an airport. Besides airport, any other project that will constitute a drain on the state resources should not be given consideration. Attention should be on what will directly improve the living standard of Nigerians, boost state revenue and make the economy very strong.