Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Tuesday hinted that the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, would be subject to the availability of fund for the project.
Sirika, who expressed the commitment of the current administration to build another runway in order to ease and meet the increasing demand of the Abuja airport, however did not give specific time frame for the commencement of the project.
The minister who disclosed this while speaking on a radio programme in Abuja further reassured Nigerians of the government effort to complete the ongoing rehabilitation of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport runway by April 19, 2017.
According to him, “I wouldn’t be able to give timeline for the second runway; when it’s coming and finishing, it is subject to availability of fund. But, the president has brought up the idea long before now that a second runway is a necessity.
“I must explain and plead with the Nigerian citizens especially the media that when we attempted to do the second runway in the past, the cost of doing the it became very astronomical from what the companies/contractors were charging. Nigerians reacted rightfully and of course, the whole idea was abandoned, and I was thinking that this probably may not be the right way to go; they should have actually tried to kill the cost instead of killing the project.”
Sirika noted that Nigerians should have reacted to the cost and forced the then government to do it within a reasonable cost rather than abandoning the project. “When I was a member of the House of Representative, the government of that time wanted to buy presidential airplane for $80 million which was in the budget, and I saw the airplane, and as an expert, I found out that the airplane will cost not more than $30 million. So, I fought, and I got my colleagues to support me, and we fought it and government bought the airplane at $30 million dollars. So, we saved $50 million. That is the airplane that the president is currently using.
“So, if we had killed the project, we would have lost the airplane. Therefore, on the second runway, what we ought to have done at that time was to kill the cost and allow the project to go on. Second runway will come to pass. We will have a second runway in Abuja by the grace of God.”
He added that “President Muhammadu Buhari has already directed that all hands must be on deck, and everybody is working including the national planning, the finance sector, and even the National Assembly are excited about it. We in the ministry are also working very hard.
“We will have a second runway in Abuja by the grace of God. All our major airports have second runway, including Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano airports. It’s only Abuja which is the nation’s capital and the fastest growing city in Africa that has no second runway.
Meanwhile, the minister has stated that the closure of the airport was for the interest of safety, and apologised for some of business that may have been affected as a result of the closure.
He said: “We did all these in the interest of safety. The runway has been completely dilapidated making operations into the Abuja airport unsafe. There has been claimed that three airlines damaged their landing gear in the process of landing in the airport. So, the responsibility is on us to ensure that everybody is safe, so in the interest of safety, we have to close down and rehabilitate the runway.”
According to him, “You know you cannot be 100 per cent perfect, but if you are 95 to 96 per cent perfect, I that can be a pass mark. We sincerely apologise for business at the airport that might have lost some revenue within the period of six weeks of the rehabilitation.
“However, apart from that, we have created enough business for Kaduna. I have seen quite a number of people whom do business in Abuja airport that have moved to Kaduna. So, some may lose while others also gained from Kaduna which is also helping the economy of Nigeria.”
