Construction of the Kogi State International Airport at Zariagi, outdoors Lokoja, is about 20 per cent full, with heavy equipment working day and evening. But there’s one other group working evening and day—the critics of Governor Usman Ododo. They are those now asking: why construct an airport whereas the roads residents use daily keep in poor situation?
The Federal Ministry of Aviation authorized the venture with the backing of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, and CCECC Nigeria Limited is constructing it. Based on reviews, it is going to deal with passengers and worldwide cargo, and state officers need it to function a diversion airport for Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
Kogi will not be ranging from nothing. Many folks don’t know that the state has 5 airstrips, none capable of take industrial jets: Obajana, owned by Dangote; Ijumu, owned by Mangal Cement; Adogo in Ajaokuta; Egbe, constructed by missionaries; and the disused previous Lokoja strip.
To put issues in perspective, two of these strips belong to cement producers. Cement leaves the state principally by street, so even the businesses with non-public airstrips depend upon the identical highways residents complain about.
An worldwide cargo airport multiplies that dependence. Freight touchdown at Zariagi should attain farms and markets by street, and passengers should attain Lokoja the identical manner. The airport can solely be as helpful because the roads connecting it.
Kogi is located the place the Niger and Benue rivers meet and hyperlinks a number of components of the nation. Thus, its roads carry visitors nicely past its personal residents. For farmers, a foul street means produce reaching the market late; for sufferers, it means an extended journey to a hospital.
The upside is actual. An airport can deliver connectivity, funding and jobs, however provided that passengers and cargo materialise and the state can fund it with out ravenous different wants. Even so, the order of spending is the problem.
With federal approval and 20 per cent constructed, the airport will most likely proceed, so a funded street programme with revealed priorities and deadlines would reply critics higher than any defence of the airport.
