The Enugu State Caucus in the House of Representatives has thrown its weight behind the federal government’s plan to concession the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
The lawmakers described the plan as a potential catalyst for the South-East economy and commended the federal government for the initiative.
It however, urged the Federal Government to hasten the concession process to enable the people of the South-East region and the nation to benefit from the measure.
The reps equally called on the people of the region to support the initiative as the only way to guarantee sustainable investment towards full development of the airport into a truly international facility.
A statement endorsing the initiative conveyed on Monday by the caucus leader, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, as well as Hon. Martins Oke, Hon. Dennis Agbo, Hon. Anayo Onwuegbu, Hon. Chimaobi Atu, Hon. Sunday Umeha, Hon. Paul Nnamchi, and Hon. Mark Obetta.
“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 the initiative was not the same thing as privatisation or sale of the airport as being peddled by some persons.
It explained that concessioning is 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,” the statement added.
The Enugu federal lawmakers also expressed faith in federal government through the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to entrust AIIA to a concessionaire with the financial and technical prowess.
They highlighted that such concessionaire will have strong international pedigree and reputation as well as antecedent of verifiable successes to actualise the target.
The statement added that nothing less of these can be acceptable and capable of catalysing the much-needed South-East regional economic prosperity and transformation.
