Chidi Ugwu
C Don Adinuba, it is a lie to say that an international airport will first fly local, then regional and later add international services. I don’t even understand what you mean by local then regional in the case of Nigeria. Do you mean Nnewi to Awka as the LOCAL, then Awka to Enugu as REGIONAL?
Because all flights within Nigeria are local whether from Southeast to Southwest or Southsouth to Northwest or Northeast or Northcentral.
Then if you meant the West African subregion as REGIONAL then it is already International. Denver International Airport, Florida, United States opened in 1995 flew INTERNATIONAL from the very first day because it was built for that purpose with the facilities and capabilities to carry out such business. Same goes for Anambra International Airport. It is built for same purpose with the facilities and capabilities to carry out such business UNLESS the Government of #Anambra State is lying to us about the features and purpose of the Airport ( I believe they are not lying).
When Enugu International Airport was flying international it had the highest service charges to the airline operator in the country, more than Lagos, PortHarcourt, Abuja and Kano by the same federal government agencies and made more expensive to fly from Enugwu to same destination with other Airports.
It was cheaper to fly from Lagos, Abuja and Kano to Dubai or France or Beijing than to do so from Enugwu yet it is the same federal regulatory agencies.
The result? Young or average people who can’t afford paying the excess in Enugwu will enter vehicle to Lagos or Abuja and fly from there.
Now, I have been waiting to hear the Federal Ministry of Aviation refute the news making rounds that the FG cited INSECURITY as why Anambra won’t fly international and assure us that it will fly international when it opens because it has the facilities.
Pray tell, is there a special criminal organisation hiding somewhere waiting to shoot down any international flight into Igbo land nay Anambra State but won’t shoot down local flights?
Or
Is Nigeria still afraid of the Igbo man, his land and his economic growth? If YES, to whose continued collective disadvantage? Can’t Nigeria be discussed? If NO, then why all these?
The continued closure of Enugwu International Airport since almost 2yrs now beats all engineering and administrative reasoning. Its purported opening in May 3rd is cloudy because few days to the date, we are yet to be furnished with the name(s) of the international airlines that will fly to and fro there from that day with their current documentation status, like Permit-To-Operate or something of that nature.
Like the international air services to Igbo land like the international shipping services too.
I remembered then in Onitsha when goods were coming in from Calabar and PortHarcourt sea ports, things were booming there. Guys were busy around Lumen Christi Ventures, Eze Bishop Enterprises offices and many others trans-loading goods from containers and repackaging them for Nigerian and West African markets. Some were repackaged right from Calabar and PortHarcourt to other African countries.
Then boom! Obasanjo struck between 2003 and 2004 and almost every shipping of our every day goods were from Lagos only. By December 2004, the number of the people coming to Onitsha to buy things had reduced drastically.
By 2005/6 these importers started relocated permanently to Lagos in droves, a lot of young people lost their jobs, yeah me too, even though I wasn’t strong or big enough then to take on k jobs. Shortly news of pirates taken over the sea routes to Niger Delta and foreign commerical container shipping companies dared not come through there again. Yet OIL related shippings keep coming through there to date!
Odiro gi egwu?
If you manage to berth there, maybe by miracle, the cost of clearing goods became clearly far higher than Lagos.
Yet it was the same Nigerian Customs Service! Then Obasanjo came with privation and finished off that area.
There is always good explanation from Government for all these.
I will also want you to know that during General Abacha’s period as Head of State that late Nze 1 of Amagunze in Enugu State rallied other traditional rulers, business men and some political leaders from Igbo land together and they went to Abacha asking him to build a sea port in Obuaku, Ukwa, Abia State.
He gave a nod to it and commissioned a team for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). When they concluded, he found out that that location is the best place for a deep sea port in Nigeria, closer to the ocean than PortHarcourt and Lagos ports at 25 nautical miles, around 52km or so to the Atlantic Ocean, then opposition to the project came from almost every part of Nigeria except Igbo land.
Before Abacha who has given a nod to that project could finish the political battle and go ahead as he would always do if he was convinced, he died.
Look at National Gas Master Plan, natural gas is currently produced in Imo, Abia and Anambra States in the Southeast among other States in Delta region but the gas will travel Abia and Imo(large quantities produced there) to Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) facility in Warri, Delta State, then from there sent to Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States and to North Central to power industries and businesses but none to Igbo land. Now, it will be going from Ajaokuta in North Central to Kaduna and Kano in North West and maybe from there to Niger Republic. None in Igbo land yet.
Who is afraid of the Igbo and his/her economic rise?
Railway? The Eastern railway started operations again in 2012 and was shut down in February of 2016 to date. Now they said they want to renovate it as same narrow gauge, why then did you stop the operation ab initio? And who wants narrow gauge now?
NNPC? They are not pumping to Enugwu depot since 2001 and the economy of Eke Obinagu that was booming around that depot went down till now.
Today, a criminal group or entity or whatever they are, now called Unknown Gun Men are busy destroying security formations across Igbo land.
When they are done weakening security they will descend on BUSINESS to destroy what we have in our cities as HERDSMEN are already destroying what we have in the bushes.
The common purpose is to continue to weaken Igbo land economically and politically now and maybe even towards 2023 so that no part will see us as worthy partners in the project.
And more investors will be frightened away from the most peaceful region in Nigeria
The DSS cannot convince me that they have no intelligence on who are doing this and how their operations can be foiled. Even if it is to foil one attack before it happens at all with useful arrests made. But if you plan to gather anywhere and pray with a flag, DSS will know 3 months ahead and wait for you
Just like how HERDSMEN will vacate a place before their killer squad will come and kill, yet DSS won’t know allegedly.
If they don’t know anything, they should be disbanded.
It will be foolhardy for anyone to believe that it is an Igbo organisation that is busy destroying Igbo land like this. Even during the period of barbarism (if any) we never had such. It is not in our culture or character. We are highly spiritual people that fear the wrath of our ancestors if we do certain things. And highly patriotic that some people even consider it arrogance some times.
Open up Igbo land and her economy to the world and Nigeria will open, if Nigeria opens Africa will open and the global Black man will have a place to be proud of.
Keep the Igbo and his/her land down and keep suffocating all of the above.
It is almost completely dark now, but we can still start RESTRUCTURING the country and discard the Exclusive Legislative List of the Federal Government and the 1999 constitution to try again at salvaging Nigeria.
Maybe something can still be done. And it will be a win win for all
What stops crisis and chaos is JUSTICE and NOT fear of a past war reminder or continued intimidation and subjugation
*As for Igbo political dealers and leaders, they are not doing anything significant for Igbo land now. They should grow some balls before we all die.
* I am still waiting for Nnia Nwodo’s 50 man committee for Ala Igbo Stabilisation Fund
*I am still waiting for the 450km Southeast Ring Roads the Governors promised
*And I conclude by saying that Nigeria should stop suffocating the ones we succeed in doing for ourselves.
