Surely, Nigeria is a unique country for so many reasons. Such reasons include its being the largest black populated country, it’s ways of doing things, the resilience of its citizens to the manner of governance by its leaders to mention but a few.
Of particular focus here is the specific ways of its doing things here in contradiction to how it is expected to be done in accordance with the rules of the games.
Here in Nigeria, there is virtually no step one takes that will not have ethnic, political, religious or personal interest agenda which is the major bane of the country.
These can be traced to the controversy that the announcement by government to close down the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja for six weeks to repairs has been generating.
Since the announcement and the decision to divert all flights to Kaduna Airport as an alternative had been made, hell has been let loose with different people including those who know next to nothing about the workings of airports ranting.
While some argued that the six weeks period the airport will be closed down will create economic catastrophe to the airlines, aviation agencies and the country at large, others opposed the choice of Kaduna as an alternative premising their reason on insecurity in the state while few others particularly those in the political class are opposing it for their own personal selfish comfort.
Besides these two groups, there are other groups who are just opposed to the repair of the runway perhaps because of their indifference towards the government of the day that decided to carry out the repairs which should have been carried out many years ago.
Amidst this drama, several questions that keep coming up include: what is the big deal about repairing an over flogged runway; do those oppose to the runway repairs realise that there is a stipulated period a runway can be used after which it becomes death trap if not maintained or is the safety of the traveling public and the aero planes not superior to the monetary losses that may be incurred while the repair lasts? All these and more are questions are calling for answer.
It is very sad that the issue of carrying out repairs on an airport runway in Nigeria has raised this thick dust when this type of repairs go on in other countries including smaller African countries every day without a single noise.
Well, may be the government has indirectly created the opportunity for the controversy by failing to engage all key players before rushing to announce the closure and the choice of Kaduna.
Certainly, the government means well for taking the decision to avert an impending doom that the failure to repair the runway would have caused. But unfortunately, government failed to hold a wide consultation considering the various interests that the exercise will affect.
Perhaps, if government had done this earlier by meeting with the airlines, the aviation agencies, ground handling companies, security agencies, other professional bodies and even the lawmakers to perfect the plan before making the announcement, the situation would have been different.
While there is no doubt that this government deserves to be commended for taking the initiative to repair the Abuja airport runway seven years behind schedule, it is however sickening to see politicians reading meanings into an issue concerning a sector that is run in line with international aviation standards.
The peak of the drama is coming from the National Assembly which many in the aviation sector have described as one of the major troubles confronting it due to their instability on issues affecting the sector.
According to key players in the sector the summoning of the ministers for transport, aviation, works and FCT over the planned runway repairs is a way of hiding their deficiencies in the past.
The truth is that the Abuja airport runway is over 30 years old and without maintenance which is a far departure from other clines where runways are built and managed periodically with a maintenance programme based on number of landings.
Obviously, while there is an urgent need for government to carry all stakeholders along in this good effort, the lawmakers and Thor opposing the repairs should know that there are ways airport operations and its management work for safety purpose which is not necessarily for commercial and political purposes.