Ebonyi Airport: The Usefulness Or Otherwise!

GREAT IMO JONATHAN

Days ago, I read a comment on Chuks Nwanne ‘s post on Facebook, where the individual condemned the ongoing Ebonyi Airport under construction. According to the person, it is a waste because there will be no use for it. 

And my response to such is that I doubt his understanding of the viability of that airport under construction. 
I have advised him to go and read about the potentials as adduced by the conceptualizer before condemning it. That airport is tied around the state agricultural export potentials and industrial development plan, which is the next phase of Ebonyi development plan.

As a matter of fact, Ebonyi is fast becoming one of the busiest mining geographies in Africa, big fertilizer blending plants are under construction there, mineral processing companies are under construction in that state and the federal government is investing billions in them. With all that onboard there is a need for them to have an airport. Agricultural export activities that can take place around that airport alone can make it one of the busiest airports in Africa in the nearest future if they follow through to the original plan.

Comments like this are driven by lack of foresight and the lack of understanding of how economies are built. If only he knew the economic potentials of Ebonyi State and that no serious foreign investor will come near its location if there is no airport and world class hotel he wouldn’t have said what he said. 

This is the mistake some of our former governors across the south east made, because they based their thinking on what was on ground rather than what can be created. They spent valuable resources on frivolities and stupid social functions when there is a future to build. Today Onitsha is a mess, markets there that should have been moved to more spacious areas in the state and allow for quality esthetics are now choking the city. Nnewi that should have been planned ahead and it’s industrial spillover moved to other communities remains largely a town instead of a mega industrial city. Aba is fast becoming a shadow of itself when Enyimba Economic City should have come onboard to improve it’s glory as far back as 15 years ago; with Obuaku seaport that should have been built to make the city a global business outlet.

Above all, the inflationary profit value of building these infrastructures today is a good motivation. If you can do it today why wait till tomorrow. That is why short sighted people can’t build a great nation. 
We need a new way of thinking.

Great Imo Jonathan writes from FCT, Abuja.