[Mhiz Rebecca]

Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday failed to
stop the planned closure of the
Nnamdi Azikiwe International
Airport, Abuja, for repair work on its
runway.
The federal government had
announced that the only airport in
the country’s capital would be closed
from March 8 for six weeks.
According to the plans of the aviation
authorities, flights will be diverted to
the Kaduna Airport and passengers
from or to Abuja will be required to
travel by rail or road for the period
of the closure.
In the previous weeks, the Senate,
following a motion by Hope
Uzodinma, the chairman of the
Committee on Aviation, had queried
the plan and summoned officials of
the executive arm connected to the
matter, including the Minister of
State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika;
Minister of Transport, Rotimi
Aamechi; and the Minister for Power,
Works and Housing, Babatunde
Fashola.
Appearing before the Senate last
week, Mr. Sirika who disclosed that
the repair work would gulp N5.8
billion, insisted the closure was
necessary.
At the resumed hearing over the
matter on Tuesday, Senators argued
against the government’s plan, citing
inconvenience and security concerns
over the Kaduna-Abuja Road.
But Messrs. Fashola and Sirika
insisted the plan was necessary.
“It is runway of the airport that
needs to be closed because it isn’t
safe, it is a matter of immense public
safety,” Mr. Fashola said. “If there is
choice between convenience and
safety considerations, safety come
first.”
He disclosed that the contract for rehabilitation of
the Abuja -Kaduna road had been awarded, and
the work would be completed 50 days ahead of
the closure.
“Minna is a shorter distance, but my humble
submission is that Kaduna-Abuja highway lends
itself to the situation. There would be
inconvenience and I sympathise with those who
would be travelling, but Nigeria is not the first
country to close an airport and divert traffic to
another city,” he said.
Mr. Sirika told the Senators the government had
budgeted N1.134 billion to ensure convenience,
safety and security of passengers moving between
Kaduna and Abuja for the period of the six-week
closure of the Abuja Airport.
The expenditure will go to the police, Nigerian
Railway Corporation, Immigration Service, Civil
Defense Corps, Road Safety Corps, and the
Ministry of Transport, taking about N350 million,
N100 million, N29 million, N325 million, N237
million, N84 million respectively.
Julius Berger, the firm handling the repair on the
the airport, said it was possible to execute the
work without closure of the airport using
segmented approach, but that would take two and
a half years to complete.
Even so, the company’s Managing Director,
Wolfgang Goetsch, said not closing the airport
while the repair is ongoing depended on the scale
of the work.
“But the state of the runway in Abuja, extent of
damage and deterioration. The whole runway
from one end to the other end is damaged.
“This means that if the method of spot repair is
loose, you start from one side of the runway, lock
it in the night and in the morning to open it up for
traffic,” Mr. Goetsch said.
He said his company guaranteed completion
within six weeks “subject to fulfillment of
obligation of all the stakeholders.”
He added that the runway after the repair would
last for a minimum of 10 years if regular
maintenance was carried out on it; and that his
company had received the contract award letter
but that it had not been signed.
However, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE,
disagreed with the ministers, aligning with the
senators’ point that the repair can be done
without total closure.
The NSE President, Otis Ayaeji, said closing the
Airport was tantamount to shutting down Nigeria,
adding that there were local engineers whose
firms could handle the project competently
without closing the airport.
In the end, the Senate could not stop the closure.
But it took the position that its preference was a
segmented approach to the repair to avoid total
closure, while leaving the aviation authorities to
take decision based on technical advice.