The African Democratic Congress has described the Federal Government’s plan to spend more than ₦712 billion on renovating the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos as a case of misplaced priority.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, described the expenditure as extravagant and a misplaced priority.
Recall that Tinubu, at Monday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, approved ₦712.3 billion for the upgrade of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, under the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo, announced the approval after the Federal Executive Council meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.
The statement have read in part: “It is hard to understand how expending ₦712 billion into renovating an airport that already received significant upgrades in recent years makes fiscal sense in a country where public universities wallow in chronic austerity, where basic medical care, has become a luxury that only the rich can afford, where millions of Nigerians have been thrown into poverty as a result of government’s ill-conceived policies. The Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos remains functional and serviceable.
“What the aviation sector needs is not another gold-plated terminal, but proper maintenance, enhanced efficiency and the expansion of regional airports to boost real connectivity across Nigeria. Just for context, the amount of money that is being funnelled into the renovation of one airport, approximately $500 million, is the same total amount that was spent to build four new airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt in 2014 via a Chinese loan that is yet to be repaid.
Keyamo said this will be the first major rehabilitation of the airport’s old terminal since its construction.
In its reaction, the ADC wondered if the renovation project and its cost were approved by the National Assembly, labelling the spending as reckless and insensitive.
The party stated, “The African Democratic Congress strongly condemns the outrageous ₦712 billion airport renovation project announced by the Tinubu administration as another brazen act of fiscal recklessness and official insensitivity, which further confirms how far this APC government is removed from the reality of the suffering people of Nigeria.
“This same Murtala Muhammed Airport had a new international terminal that was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2022. According to media reports at the time, the said facility was built on a landmass of approximately 56,000 square metres, with 66 check-in counters and had the capacity to process 14 million passengers annually.”
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