Dapo Abiodun Prepares Gateway Airport for Historic Takeoff

Great cities are rarely remembered by the noise of their markets alone but by the gateways they carve to the wider world. For Ogun State, that threshold now gleams in steel and tarmac, a runway stretching into tomorrow’s sky.

On October 7, 2025, Ogun’s sky will witness history. The newly minted Gateway International Airport will welcome its first commercial flight, as ValueJet takes off on the Ogun–Abuja route. For Governor Dapo Abiodun, it is more than an inaugural flight. It is proof that vision, when pursued with faith and precision, becomes destiny.

The Gateway International Airport (GIA)’s story began four years ago as a bold promise by Abiodun’s administration to reimagine Ogun’s transport system and industrial capacity. What seemed improbable in its infancy has matured into one of the most advanced aerodromes in West Africa.

With a 4,000-metre-long and 60-metre-wide runway, the airport is among the longest and widest on the continent, ready to host wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350. Beneath its asphalt lies both impeccable engineering and ambition: a determination that Ogun State should no longer be a passenger in Nigeria’s aviation history but a pilot steering its own trajectory.

The facility bears every hallmark of world-class standards: a Doppler VOR for precision navigation, an independent high-band power system for uninterrupted operations, a state-of-the-art control tower, rescue and firefighting equipment, cargo warehouses, and a modern passenger terminal. It is an infrastructure designed to endure and elevate Ogun into global reckoning.

ValueJet will inaugurate GIA with a twice-weekly schedule between Ogun and Abuja. Few airports can boast of a location so strategically endowed. Nestled near the Sagamu Interchange, at the crossroads of the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, the Gateway International Airport is a hub in waiting. Its catchment area is vast, stretching across Ogun, Lagos, Oyo, and even Ondo States, positioning it as a lifeline for millions of travellers.

More than convenience, it is a corridor for commerce. Cargo destined for West Africa can now find a swift route through Ogun. Traders weary of the bottlenecks of Lagos ports and airports will discover relief. Manufacturers whose goods must move with speed and efficiency will find Ogun’s runway a blessing.

The Ogun State Government describes the launch as a “significant economic breakthrough.” The language may sound official, yet the reality is irrefutable. An airport is a marketplace of futures. It births jobs, attracts industries, feeds tourism, and sustains commerce.

With the commencement of commercial flights, Gateway International Airport is poised to become a fulcrum of Ogun’s industrial renaissance. It complements the state’s burgeoning free trade zones, deepens its magnetism for investors, and expands the geography of opportunity for residents. Already positioned as Nigeria’s industrial hub, Ogun now ties its destiny to the skies.