Ben Ezechime, Enugu
Members of the House of Representatives from Enugu, South-East Nigeria, have backed Federal Government’s plan to concession the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Monday, the Enugu caucus members led by Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, representing Nkanu East/West Federal Constituency, said the move would boost the South-East economy.
The caucus further commended the Federal Government for the initiative and urged it to hasten the concession process for the benefit the people of the South-East and Nigeria in general.
They also 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.
Other members of the caucus includes Hon. Martins Oke, Hon. Dennis Agbo, Hon. Anayo Onwuegbu, Hon. Chimaobi Atu, Hon. Sunday Umeha, Hon. Paul Nnamchi, and Hon. Mark Obetta, representing the eight federal constituencies of Enugu State.
The caucus said: “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 further explained that concessioning was not the same thing as privatisation or sale of the airport as being peddled by some persons, but a well-known 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.”
