KOGI STATE FANTASY AIRPORT PROJECT: A MONUMENTAL WASTE OF STATE WEALTH AND INSULT TO KOGI’S SUFFERING MASSES.
I vehemently reject the outrageous and delusional claim by the Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Hon. Kingsley Fanwo, that “no state in Nigeria needs an airport more than Kogi.” While I acknowledge the government’s flashy ambitions for so-called developmental projects, the proposed international airport in Zariagi is a grotesquely misguided, utterly irresponsible, and egregious misallocation of the state’s desperately limited resources.
Kogi State remains a predominantly agrarian backwater, where the vast majority of citizens are impoverished peasant farmers and rural dwellers barely surviving on subsistence levels. These long-suffering people cannot even dream of affording air travel, and squandering billions on this vanity project will do absolutely nothing to alleviate their crushing daily struggles with deplorable roads, abysmal healthcare, dilapidated schools, chronic power outages, and nonexistent market access for their meager produce.
Kogi is disastrously hemmed in by nine neighboring states plus the Federal Capital Territory—ten in total—almost all boasting fully operational airports. Distances to these facilities are laughably short. With serious, targeted investment in robust road networks and seamless connectivity, Kogi could far more sensibly emerge as a vital transit and logistics powerhouse linking Abuja to wider regions, rather than foolishly duplicating redundant aviation white elephants that already surround us.
The astronomical funds—now pegged at around ₦50 billion and potentially soaring into even more obscene figures through Sukuk bonds and other borrowings—earmarked for this doomed venture would deliver infinitely greater, life-changing impact if ruthlessly redirected to truly urgent, people-centered priorities.
In my firm and unapologetic view, the Kogi State Government must urgently abandon this reckless folly and instead commit massive resources—up to 50% or more of capital expenditure if necessary—to establishing reliable, high-capacity rail services directly connecting Kogi to the Federal Capital Territory. Such a transformative rail project would:
•• Unlock massive relief for the huge daily army of Kogi workers commuting to Abuja under grueling conditions.
•• Revolutionize the seamless transport of agricultural produce and goods to lucrative urban markets.
•Magnetically attract businesses, ignite explosive economic growth, and generate thousands of sustainable, dignified jobs for our beleaguered citizens.
•Cement Kogi’s rightful position as the indispensable gateway between the North-Central zone and the FCT—without the crippling, perpetual drain of maintaining an inevitably underutilized, money-guzzling airport.
A glaring, cautionary tale stares us in the face:
Ebonyi State’s Chuba Okadigbo International Airport fiasco. Despite hemorrhaging tens of billions—over ₦55 billion and counting—in taxpayer money, this notorious white elephant has been plagued by endless runway disasters demanding repeated, exorbitant rehabilitations; interminable delays in meaningful commercial operations; humiliating temporary shutdowns; and widespread scorn as a monument to fiscal recklessness. Even post-inaugurations, reconstructions, and feeble attempts at limited chartered flights, it has languished in near-total idleness, plagued by abysmal utilization and grave doubts about viability amid insufficient local economic vibrancy. Ebonyi continues bleeding billions more into endless fixes—runway resurfacing, terminal repairs, infrastructure overhauls—funds irresponsibly diverted from desperately needed poverty eradication, education, and healthcare in one of Nigeria’s most impoverished states.
Genuine development must be judged by its power to uplift the forgotten masses, not by extravagant, ego-driven prestige projects that pamper a minuscule elite while impoverishing the many. I urgently demand that the Kogi State Government immediately scrap this scandalous airport boondoggle and redirect every kobo to infrastructure that delivers swift, concrete, and inclusive benefits to ordinary citizens—decent roads, efficient rail, agricultural empowerment, quality education, and accessible healthcare.
Kogi deserves real, equitable progress—not this extravagant, tone-deaf waste of public funds.
Signed,
Chief Peter Ameh
Ex-2019 Presidential Candidate
Former National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC)
Abuja, Nigeria