Abuja airport: Beyond a temporary closure
Even before its temporary closure for rehabilitation on March 8, 2017, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, had always struck me as a facility permanently under construction or endlessly undergoing repairs.
Each time I drive into the airport and look to my right at a restricted corridor, I wonder when the gauzy veil of workers shade concealing scaffolds in a construction site would be dismantled, signifying the end of the construction work and the birth of perhaps a fully built and functional international airport. Not to mention the scraggly landscape of its parking lot as you enter through a slopy diversion to your left, and other rough patches scattered across the facility, unlike what one sees in similar airports in other countries.
So it is understandable if its closure signifies the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to grit its teeth and commence the process of reconstructing and rejigging it for optimal safety, functionality and comfort. And I needn’t invite you to see some of its conveniences, compared to what obtains with similar facilities in other countries, to appreciate what I mean by comfort.
The airport is a symbolic door to our country, and a mirror thereof. Visitors to our country could judge its general state by how functional, clean and safe they find it. Considering how closely our country’s image is not linked to it, no reasonable expense of time and funds should be spared to ensure that it reflects all these attributes, including of course the period of closure and the N5.8 billion estimated for the rehabilitation. We only need to ensure that we get the best value for the time and money spent.
More importantly, this temporary closure has to do with the runway, which is also billed for expansion. Like the control tower, the runway should be among the most reliable features of any airport where the safety of passengers and the aircraft that convey them is of primary interest. And that of the Abuja airport seemed to have degenerated into a highrisk runway due to poor maintenance.
Until the temporary closure, maintenance of the runway had taken place only at night, which could pose risks to passengers and aircraft for a facility that accommodates night flights. And though constructed over 30 years ago, the runway had witnessed no major repair or the mandatory rehabilitation to which it should have been subjected after 20 years.
We should recall how the poor maintenance culture in our power sector lasting about the same thirty-year period resulted in several complications from which our country, now facing serious power problems that sum up to perennially inadequate power, has yet to extricate itself.
Incidentally, I was sceptical about the reliability of the promise to reopen the airport for normal business after six weeks, on April 19, 2017, until Hadi Sirika, the Minister of State for Aviation, vowed to resign if that did not happen, and so put his job and reputation on the line to lend credibility to the pledge.
Moreover, I thought the plan to close down the airport and use the Kaduna airport in its stead could be a ploy by some vested interests to supplant it with the latter after the upgrade that would inevitably precede its use for the same aviation services. This fear was reinforced by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) insisting that the airport could be rehabilitated while still in use. But it has been allayed by the evidence of ongoing work at the Abuja airport, and the realisation that any uplift the Kaduna airport receives to enable its utilisation for the same aviation services for the six weeks can be beneficial in the long term, besides the immediate gains during the period of closure.
It means, for instance, that international flights may be diverted to the Kaduna airport during emergencies, with the certainty that its facilities can handle such as it has proven by accommodating international flights in relief of the Abuja airport. And with the planned construction of a second runway at the Abuja airport, it means either runway can be rehabilitated in the future without necessitating a closure of the entire facility.
I was also concerned about the safety of travelling the road from Kaduna to Abuja and the pressure of the logistics for prospective and disembarked air passengers plying that route, given the general insecurity in our country and the unpredictable crime rate. But the authorities seem to have handled that aspect well, with the facelift given to the road and the provision of vehicles to convey air passengers between the Abuja and Kaduna airports under tight security.
Of course one cannot ignore the reservations of the international airlines that have chosen not to patronise the Kaduna airport. But since Ethiopian Airlines - with similar aircraft to those of the other airlines and relying on the same aviation technology they would normally utilise - has successfully landed and taken off from the Kaduna airport, one wonders why any other airline couldn’t do the same. Ms. Firiehiwot Mekonnen, the airline’s Traffic and Sales Manager, recently told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that it had operated 28 flights, airlifting 4,500 passengers, from the airport from March 8 to April 4, 2017. Isn’t this sufficient proof that the airport is not to blame for the hesitation of those other international airlines to utilise it under the present circumstances?
I had similar reservations when the British authorities proposed dismantling the old Wembley Stadium and constructing a new sporting complex in its place. But with the more grand and functional edifice erected in place of the old stadium, no one doubts that the British authorities did well to follow through with that decision. And like Wembley after it was rebuilt, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport should turn out better in the interest of all stakeholders after its rehabilitation, if our government keeps its promise to do the right thing.