If you are the governor of Akwa-Ibom/Ogun/Delta and you had $300M at your disposal, which project(s) would you embark upon?Building an airport?

why not? @Biina - what will you do instead

AjaraEwuro:

why not? @Biina - what will you do instead

There are a MILLION other things that $300m could achieve - and I'm not talking about 'feeding and clothing the masses here'.

- There are numerous farming locales in AK that lose 80% of their agricultural production due to lack of transportation/storage facilities. Utilising a fraction of the 300m (~ 45 BILLION naira) to build linkage roads for the small hamlets to major population centres and building produce storage facilities will lower food prices, increase farmer productivity and enrich the remote communities.

- IMPROVE the major highway between Uyo and Calabar, so AK residents have quick and safe transportation routes to an airport if they need to fly.

- Collaborate with the Cross River State Government or FG (whoever owns the Calabar Airport) and UPGRADE it's facilities to make it fit for purpose. That way the flying needs of AK indigenes are met, they have an improved road link to Calabar and they have improved agricultural output.

All this is patently achievable, without the heartache the white elephant airport project is causing at the moment - benefiting a wider spectrum of people and efficiently utilising resources.

AjaraEwuro:

why not? @Biina - what will you do instead

1Health and Education. Build and equip schools and hospitals.
2. Power : Find way to support efforts of phcn to provide predictable power to the communities
3. Water : Delivering pipe borne water to both urban and rural areas
4. Agriculture: Invest in mechanization of the sector
5. Transport: Improved Road and Rail infrastructure e.g. Partnership between Ogun-Lagos for bullet train to deliver people to the island, which would in turn increase the value of real estate in ogun state and attract higher income settlers and subsequent development or improving drainge systems to help the maintenance of roads.

These may not be the best investments, but I will argue they are more beneficial to the populace than a airport.

AjaraEwuro:

why not? @Biina - what will you do instead

i'll spend the money building a football stadium for my state. right next to an already existing one.

As I said previously don't make us take panadol because Korea has a headache.

These projects (Asaba International Airport) are implemented on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model with a private developer who will be given a concession of 15-25 years to recoup their cost (This was also the finance model for the Lagos Domestic Airport). This means that if the project is not viable the developer takes the hit and not government.

Biina, Debosky and co your concern that funds should be spent judiciously is proper and perhaps patriotic? but those sentiments are misplaced on this occasion.  

I am sure there will be other opportunities to spread more well meaning but erroneous theories.

SapeleGuy:

As I said previously don't make us take panadol because Korea has a headache.

These projects (Asaba International Airport) are implemented on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model with a private developer who will be given a concession of 15-25 years to recoup their cost (This was also the finance model for the Lagos Domestic Airport). This means that if the project is not viable the developer takes the hit and not government.

Biina, Debosky and co your concern that funds should be spent judiciously is proper and perhaps patriotic? but those sentiments are misplaced on this occasion.  

I am sure there will be other opportunities to spread more well meaning but[b] erroneous theories.[/b]

What is erroneous about it? Is Akwa Ibom's airport build operate and transfer? Is Ogun state government's own being built on BOT basis?

You can limit your discourse to Asaba if you want, but there are numerous airport projects with GOVERNMENT FUNDING going on. This argument remains very valid.

Even on the Asaba purported BOT case, the government has budgeted 6.8 BILLION NAIRA for the project. Should we ignore the other potential benefits of this money to Delta as well?

Even when Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan stated in his budget speech that Asaba Airport project would take off this year, some still doubted the possibility of that ever happening.

After all, it was only a budget proposal which may, or may not, be achieved. So, it was a bit of a surprise when it was announced last week that the huge sum of N1.6 billion out of about N6.8 billion budgeted, has been released for the immediate take-off the construction of the airport and that a project implementation committee with no less a person than the deputy governor, Prof Amos Utuama as chairman to accelerate the completion of the project has been set up.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/Sunday%20Mailbox/2008/jan/20/mailbox-20-01-2008-002.htm

Bland statements can fool some, but others know better.

SapeleGuy:

As I said previously don't make us take panadol because Korea has a headache.

These projects (Asaba International Airport) are implemented on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model with a private developer who will be given a concession of 15-25 years to recoup their cost (This was also the finance model for the Lagos Domestic Airport). This means that if the project is not viable the developer takes the hit and not government.

Biina, Debosky and co your concern that funds should be spent judiciously is proper and perhaps patriotic? but those sentiments are misplaced on this occasion.  

I am sure there will be other opportunities to spread more well meaning but erroneous theories.

So who is paying for the construction of the airport? Private investors or public funds or a mix.
All public funds should be judiciously allocated. Unless there are no public funds involved, such concerns are well placed.

i'll spend the money building a football stadium for my state. right next to an already existing one.

right on the button.

@SapeleGuy
Do you have any information on the investment group involved in the BOT for the Asaba airport? as all info I have seen seem to point to the state government footing the bill, and possibly ULO getting a BOT deal for their effort.

i'll spend the money building a football stadium for my state. right next to an already existing one.

teslim balogun stadium vs national stadium?

nice diss

The airport will attract traffic from cities that have no other alternatives. The airport in Akwa ibom will not attract traffic destined for calabar nor port harcourt.
Aside from the skeletal staff, all other employment or business opportunities that would arise would depends on the level of activity of the airport.
A more inland location inwards of the aba-eket-uyo triangle would have been my preferred location (as those, I feel, are the key cities that would generate the traffic)

For the region, I would prefer a high speed rail (200km/hr+) connection from calabar to uyo onto port harcourt, aba, (possibly ikot ekpene) and eket, making uyo a sort of hub and bringing more commerce to the area. That for me is a better investment in the transport sector, than the airport

KnowAll:

writing off startup cost to make an airport viable is an indication that it is not going to be viable. not to talk of that being cooking the books.

Writing off is part of good govenance and is practised in a lot of big business all over the world. You dont want to give a business to some to run by saying well we start with -$2million dollars now make me some money. What you do is write off the $2million dollars and tell the person you are starting with no debts make this airport profitable.

oga kmowall, i see you live in the UK. can you tell me why the govt still massively subsidise the British rail, london underground, royal mail just to name a few after applying your " write off the $2million dollars and tell the person you are starting with no debts make this airport profitable." policy for years?.

KnowAll:

a new stadium just got built for a team out here(its highly subsidized) i dont know the exact percentage but the tax payers bore the most of the burden. Guess what, they did not write that cost to tax payers off. the team had figured out how to bring in the revenue to help justify the huge subsidy even before they got approval. so you preaching write off to me is simply cooking the books in my opinion

There is noting like cooking the books in a country that requires all these development activities, when a country is putting certain infrastruture in place they are not thinking of viability they are thinking we need an airpot here they build it, we need a train station here they build it, we need a flyover here they build it. They might sell some of these infastrutures in later years just like Heathrow airport, British rail, British airways. When they sell it they will not say we are owing $25 million that debt is now yours they write it off and sell it off just to cut their losses.

what will nigeria benefit from all these write off you are recommending? why not create a mass transport system instead of creating transport for the few?

I'd go with the guys who say it's a total waste of resources. Intra-city road transportation, and a good road network is far more important than an airport. Methinks we have too many already. we have two sub-optimized ones in Lagos, and Fashola wants to build a new one. Why not ensure that the roads are good and there are viable transportation alternatives (road, rail, waterways) to get to the mainland airport from Lekki?
After all, you can even board a ferry from Lekki, berth at Ogudu,and connect a BRT to the airport, for example.
The length and breadth of Nigeria (1300 and 1100km North to South and East to West, if my O Level geography serve me right) is too much of a short haul to need so many airports.
At least we're not in a war-torn country. I was in Congo once and they didn't have roads linking Kinshaha to the other towns. If you want to go from somewhere like Surulere to somewhere like Ikeja, na copter ride be that.

KnowAll:

Most of what we Nigerians call airpot are not airport, they are mere airfields, A typical airport in Naija has one long road called the run way and a few bungalows as terminal building. It is only MM and Abuja and maybe Port Harcourt that one can classify as a a proper airport. Give me N100 Million niara I will build those naija airports, the Governors of those states are only using the airport contract to siphon money out of the country. Imagine budgeting N2.5 billiob to build a long road that is wide enough to take a small plane and a few bungalows. I tell you I work in what you naijas we call an airport in England. Infact as I am typing this peice I can see abouy 7 private jets all bigger than boeing 737's parked on the run way. I work in RAF Northolt, it is classified as an airforce base but a lot of business men use it to avoid the press and all that commotion in Heathrow and Gatwick airport, celebrities also like using it, madonna uses it if she is in town and she dosent want people to know. If you see the terminal bulding you will call it an airport, but it is only an RAF Base. I visited Akure airport in Niaja, I said is this an airport you people dont know what an airport is. Even MM in lagos cannot take the new Air-bus plane. Most of those airfields in Naija that you people are calling airport cannot even take boeing 747 so what makes it an airport. I think when our people see a plane land on any piece of land they call that land an airport,
our smart Governors will now capitalise on our naivety, me I no kuku blame them. The cost of building some people's house in Naija is more than the cost of building some of those airfields we call airports. Within 20 miles radius of London city there are more than 30 airfields and 5 majour airports.

kNOWALL, you have totally lost me. are you saying that
1. we need to build new airports that meet world standards?
2. we need to refurbish/upgrade what we have to world standards?
3. we need not worry about building any airports and just make do with what we have?
4. we need to object to this airport building gold rush cos its simply to score points by these governors?
5. we need to expand the capacity of our major airports to accomodate the new Airbus jumbo jet?

cos at this point i no understand wetin u dey yarn again. as per the airbus u say cant land at MMA. i totally agree it cant land at MMA. it cant land at most of the airports we have in the world, heck JFK had to be upgraded to accomodate it cos it couldnt land there as well. so what really is ur argument?

Give me 400 million and I would invest in enterprises looking to build and run Maglev system of transportation across Nigeria.

Kobojunkie:

Give me 400 million and I would invest in enterprises looking to build and run Maglev system of transportation across Nigeria.

build a stadium across from another instead. you cant go wrong with that.

Maybe I should! That way I would not be labelled enemy of PROGRESS by some of the blockheads out there!!

Give me 400 million and I would invest in enterprises looking to build and run Maglev system of transportation across Nigeria.  


What I am saying is all those things wey your people they call airport are just a take off and landing strip for a plane, they aint airpot. So what I am emphasing here is these landing strips are not white elephant project they are more like white rat projects. Some houses in Ikoyi is more expensive than those strips your Governors are calling airport. That is why I said give me N100 million I build something better than those strip we have all over Niaja.


You cannot build Maglev with N400 Million Niara lai lai, or do you mean Dollars.  

Kobojunkie:

Maybe I should! That way I would not be labelled enemy of PROGRESS by some of the blockheads out there!!

yes ke. we learn fast on NL.

KnowAll:

You cannot build Maglev with N400 Million Niara lai lai, or do you mean Dollars. 

You missed the part where I state I would INVEST the money in any company that would like to build and RUN IT( for profit) in Nigeria?

Ofcourse, we are looking at almost $2 billion dollars to build really serious Maglev in a place like Abuja alone, only that the government feels putting that money to building a 10-lane highway is better deal for that money.  I for one believe we need high speed rail system to connect most all metro areas in that country already. No need for more airports at this time. We need rail and we need it like yesterday.

KnowAll:

Give me 400 million and I would invest in enterprises looking to build and run Maglev system of transportation across Nigeria.  


What I am saying is all those things wey your people they call airport are just a take off and landing strip for a plane, they aint airpot. So what[b] I am emphasing here is these landing strips are not white elephant project they are more like white rat projects.[/b] Some houses in Ikoyi is more expensive than those strips your Governors are calling airport. That is why I said give me N100 million I build something better than those strip we have all over Niaja.


You cannot build Maglev with N400 Million Niara lai lai, or do you mean Dollars.  

whether elephant or Rat, so long it is WHITE, it is not welcome.

Did you miss the part where I state I would INVEST the money in any company that would like to build and RUN IT( for profit) in Nigeria?


Maglev is a pipe dream for a country like Naija for now, Even Britain said it is too costly to build so they shelve the idea. Let Naija build the standard 120 miles per hour train first .

Well, when I say an enterprise here, I mean a serious company such as any proven foreign company willing to take the contract. Nothing is impossible in Nigeria. We have the money, we already waste it in the billions on silly things, so I do not see why wasting it on maglev/high speed will be worse. Abuja is already going to, in my opinion, "waste" almost 2 billion dollars on 10 lane roads in a city with already good roads compared to the rest of the country, and not even half of the population of Port harcourt or Owerri.

I believe in spending money on high quality and nothing on low quality crap. We already spend close to a trillion naira on generators, fueling and maintainance of these gens each year in Abuja alone. Imagine if all that money was put forth towards installing wind generators in Abuja, how much money that would save us each year in budget and contracts?

whether elephant or Rat, so long it is WHITE, it is not welcome.

You dont get it these strips probably cost your state Governor about N70 to N80 Million to build but they tell the whole world it will cost N2.5 bIllion Niara.  That even aint white anything self na day light robbery.

Fifa will manage nigeria for the under 17 worldcup,.can they be serious

It is funny reading how Nigerians argue. Y'all like to fight ohh. Meanwhile, are you aware that Enugu Airport was recently sold to a Chinese dude? The other Airport that the Chinese Dude bought was an unused airfield in Eastern Germany with some facility for assembly. Difference between buying Enugu Airport was that it was basically given to him for free. They may talk about concessions and stuff, but dude is yet to build any roads or whatever.

The Chinese guy's main rationale is to use the Eastern Germany unused military airfield and a way-point from China for refueling and assembling some Chinese products so they can stick Made in Germany on them. Enugu will hence become a distribution point for the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

If you are thinking what I am thinking, then you may wonder if the rush to build these airports is to give them away and be paid under the table while Nigeria is fleeced for the costs of the airports. I personally think the Lekki Airport is legitimate because of the Lekki free trade zone and the expected activities that will result from it. It is also wise because most Nigerians who can afford to fly are based in Lekki/Victoria Island/Ikoyi. Moving the main Airport hub to that area may help reduce traffic through the rest of Lagos.

larez:

It is funny reading how Nigerians argue. Y'all like to fight ohh. Meanwhile, are you aware that Enugu Airport was recently sold to a Chinese dude? The other Airport that the Chinese Dude bought was an unused airfield in Eastern Germany with some facility for assembly. Difference between buying Enugu Airport was that it was basically given to him for free. They may talk about concessions and stuff, but dude is yet to build any roads or whatever.

The Chinese guy's main rationale is to use the Eastern Germany unused military airfield and a way-point from China for refueling and assembling some Chinese products so they can stick Made in Germany on them. Enugu will hence become a distribution point for the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

If you are thinking what I am thinking, then you may wonder if the rush to build these airports is to give them away and be paid under the table while Nigeria is fleeced for the costs of the airports. I personally think the Lekki Airport is legitimate because of the Lekki free trade zone and the expected activities that will result from it. It is also wise because most Nigerians who can afford to fly are based in Lekki/Victoria Island/Ikoyi. Moving the main Airport hub to that area may help reduce traffic through the rest of Lagos.

:oand with the bolded statement, you shot urself in the pinky toe.

i can see most of these people writing things dont even know  or gone to these places they are criticizing, i cannot speak for others but the Akwa Ibom International Airport, it is the best thing that can happen to the state, i read someone misinforming this forum that the distance btween uyo and calabar airport is the same as from uyo to the ibom airport, big lie, get the facts stright now Uyo to calabar airport is not less that 80 km by road, uyo to the ibom airport is only 26 km.(compare the difference) people should not be saying what they do not know. Secondly most of the paeesgers using the calabar airport are akwa ibom people, the stress of travelling from calabar to uyo is stress  not less that 1hr 30 mins using a very good car (i use it a lot that is why i know), an airport in akwa ibom will help the state to get things to the state quicker. One thing that is very peculiar about this Airport is that it comes complete with a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Facility, the first in west africa , the other two in Africa is at South Africa and ethiopia, most people don't know this, that is what is delaying the project up till now, all the facilities have to be imported and we know it takes time.

Another project is worth commending is the Akwa Ibom Seaport at Ibaka, u see that calabr port will continue to remain in its state because the water level is not deep, where the port is situated is where where sand is being deposited from upstream, that is the reason it needs dredging all the time. This is very sad but it is the truth, so if the ibaka seaport is constructed, this will revive the business activities in the southern tip of nigeria  once again. it will serve so many states like Akwa ibom, Cross river, abia, imo , anambre and others. Ibaka is a very natural seaport with the deepest water level in nigeria, it needs NO dredging. that was what informed the siting of the Nigeria Maritime Academy in Oron quite close by.

The People of Akwa Ibom and Nigeria by extension cannot wait to have these projects completed and put to use

Some projects in Nigeria unfortunately are sited majorly especially at the federal level due to politics, but certainly not these two i have listed above.

When people start posts with statements such as the one below

BabaTony:

i can see most of these people writing things dont even know or gone to these places they are criticizing,

it is indication they are absolutely clueless, but they are going to pretend no one else knows this.

BabaTony:

i cannot speak for others but the Akwa Ibom International Airport, it is the best thing that can happen to the state, i read someone misinforming this forum that the distance btween uyo and calabar airport is the same as from uyo to the ibom airport, big lie, get the facts stright now Uyo to calabar airport is not less that 80 km by road, uyo to the ibom airport is only 26 km.(compare the difference) people should not be saying what they do not know.

Compare what difference??  80Km to 26 km/50 miles to 16 miles/ about 30 minutes to about 14 minutes ride to the airport? I am not sure what exactly is wrong with living about 30 minutes from an airport.

BabaTony:

Secondly most of the paeesgers using the calabar airport are akwa ibom people, the stress of travelling from calabar to uyo is stress not less that 1hr 30 mins using a very good car (i use it a lot that is why i know), an airport in akwa ibom will help the state to get things to the state quicker.

Yes, nevermind that the probable reason why an 80km/50 mile journey would take 1.5 hours is because the roads are not in the best form to allow for better commute time, spending 10’s of millions more on building an airport, that would probably not be viable, is the best way to go!!! WOOHOO!!

 

BabaTony:

One thing that is very peculiar about this Airport is that it comes complete with a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Facility, the first in west africa , the other two in Africa is at South Africa and ethiopia, most people don't know this, that is what is delaying the project up till now, all the facilities have to be imported and we know it takes time.

But why not apply the Maintanance/Repair/Overhaul(MRO) facility to the roads. That way you drastically reduce drive time, save tax payers and the public loads of money and allow the other state deal with cost of maintaining an airport instead?