Obudu: The imperative of an international airport

The proximity of Northern Cross River State to the North Central and north-eastern regions of Nigeria is public knowledge. It is a geographical reality that Cross River State has to take advantage of to enhance the socio-economic development of these regions in particular and the country in general. The North Central region of Benue State shares a boundary with Obudu, Cross River State, and it’s a major centre of food production. Also, the North Central region state of Nassarawa is a major centre of the solid mineral industry in the country. It is sheer ingenuity for Governor Ben Ayade to have conceived the Obudu Cargo International Airport to be a major hub for the exploration of solid minerals and finished agricultural products in Europe and other parts of the world.  The processed industrial products from the French Fries Factory in Obanliku in Cross River State will be exported abroad and this will end the importation of this product to Nigeria, thereby saving the country precious foreign exchange.

Presently, the Obudu Cargo International Airport is 80 per cent completed. What is a cargo airport?  Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail.The pertinent question that has agitated the minds of people which I will attempt to clarify as much as possible is:  why Obudu International airport? Put another way why is Obudu Cargo International Airport a necessity? It is a necessity because it will facilitate the export potatoes and French fries to Europe. They will be cultivated in Obudu Ranch. In Nigeria, all French fries are presently imported. Also, exportation of beef with an impetus to catalyse the reactivation of the Obudu Cattle Ranch;   exportation of flowers from the Ranch Resort which has a rich horticultural environment enabling the importation of rare species of flowers to Europe for which a small country like Rwanda makes about a billion dollars per annum. Again, for the exportation of solid minerals such as gold, diamond, and tantalite, having a cargo airport in Obudu will bring the needed connectivity between the three regions in Nigeria to the world; traffic of passengers to the Obudu Ranch Resort takes about 7 hours (from Lagos to Calabar and thereafter by road to the Ranch Resort) for instance. The Air Strip in Obudu can only carry light aircraft and is virtually non-functional at the moment owing to the air mishaps around that area. An international airport in Obudu will open up the area and bring the needed economic development within that axis, and the transportation of people to the British-Canadian University, Obudu, for students studying Law, Medicine, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(Stem) will be invaluable relief to such students and their parents if an international airport is sited in Obudu.

For medical tourism, passengers to the Obudu German Cancer Centre and World Class Quaternary Hospital (currently the best in Nigeria) would find the international airport in Obudu a huge relief. Quaternary care has been defined as an extension of tertiary care about advanced levels of medicine which are highly specialised and not widely accessed, and usually only offered in a very limited number of national or international centres and the Obanlikwu Industrial Sweetener factory from maize and from which Sorbitol is produced, can be exported from the Obudu International airport as well.There is a groundnut oil factory in Bekwara, which has a proximity to Obudu and can take benefit of the international airport in Obudu to export groundnut oil to Dubai for onward bottling and sales in the Gulf States.For the export of yam flour for industrial gum and pounded yam for Africans living in the diaspora, the airport in Obudu comes in handy;

The Obudu international airport is one of the ingenious signature projects conceived by Governor Ben Ayade to transform Cross River State and create an economy that hitherto was virtually non-existent.

• Obono-Obla writes in from Obudu, Cross River State