₦airaland Forum

Kingsbridge:
your from ebonyi and all you do is lie to defend umahi that's bad, he may have won your heart with his project's being the first governor to establish much infrastructural development in ebonyi but saying his official convoy is 10 from 28 i know of then you must be a joker.

TEDHorsePower:
Lets stop unnecessary hype, Uyo is more beautiful and serene with beautiful roads, by far sef

Kollyman:
In my opinion, It is an error to say that Enugu is more developed than Uyo. I have been and stayed in the two cities and I can tell you that London is different from Lagos

IkpuMmadu:
This imo man... You are worried that it would take of the shine off Imo...

Rocksvibes234:
Currently Nigeria has 31 airports. Twenty six of them are operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).


The others are run by State Governments that own them. There are also a number of airstrips and airfields owned by either the Nigerian Airforce or multi-national oil companies. A lot of pride and pleasure can ooze from these numbers.

These numbers say that Nigeria’s aviation industry has taken off and is flying high. Not true. These numbers can lie to us if we only listen to the pilot’s alluring voice that tells us that we will be cruising at 31, 000 feet above sea level. On the ground the airports are not cruising. Only four of them seem to be smiling to the bank: Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa.

The rest are barely surviving. The reasons that have helped the big four to thrive are high passenger traffic, location in towns that have strong business enterprises and their access to non-aeronautical revenue. The ones that are finding it difficult to breathe are disadvantaged on those three grounds. Despite this dire situation some state governments have just built (Bayelsa) or are building (Anambra) or are planning to build (Ekiti) their own airports. Not too long ago FAAN had to withdraw its services from Gombe and Kebbi airports over their failure to pay security and fire cover charges which were said to run into millions of naira.

As Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State started to build a state-funded airport in Umueri, near Onitsha and Awka the state capital, some analysts have queried whether or not an airport near Awka was a desideratum and whether it is sustainable. Awka is 60 kilometres from Enugu and 42 kilometres from Asaba where there are airports already. The proximity to the two airports would ordinarily prescribe that the Anambra State Government invests its money in something else. Week ago Chief Obiano, invited a number of people from Anambra and beyond to come and take a peep into the airport he is building. We spent hours inspecting the vast airport where five contracting companies are working feverishly to deliver the airport for use in April next year.

The airport has a 3.7 kilometre runway with extra metres dubed the free zone, an 11-storey control tower, two taxi ways leading to the apron and more than 400 persons capacity terminal building erected on three floors. We were told that the runway is constructed in such a way that an aircraft can land from either side. The runway lighting is CAT II which will enable an aircraft to land even in the worst weather condition. Besides, the airport is conceived largely as a cargo airport even though it will also carry passengers. Airpeace Airline is negotiating to build a hanger at the facility for the servicing of aircraft. Chief Obiano is optimistic that the airport will, unlike several other airports, thrive because of the entrepreneurial acumen of industrialists who form what is known as the ONA industrial complex (Onitsha-Nnewi-Awka). Onitsha has the largest market in West Africa. Nnewi is famous for its automobile cluster of which the famous Innoson Automobiles owned by Mr Innocent Chukwuma is a well known example. Nnewi also has many manufacturing industries such as the Ibeto Group, Coscharis Group, Omata Holdings, Chicason Group etc.

The estimate is that Nnewi town alone controls about 80% of the motor parts and motorcycle parts market in Nigeria. They are experts in adapting foreign technology to local needs. So Nnewi is also the headquarters of fabrication which is nicknamed the Taiwan of Nigeria. The industrial triangle is completed by Awka, which provides the third leg. Chinua Achebe said this of Awka: “Awka has a certain kind of aura about it because it was the place of the blacksmiths that created implements which made Agriculture possible.”

Now Awka has added to its persona the aura and clout of the capital of a state that has come to be known as the “Light of the Nation.” It has at least 15 three-star hotels and is ranked at number 14 in internally generated revenue. The State also boasts of the Agulu lake crocodiles and the world famous Ogbunike caves which is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Igbo Ukwa Museum which is filled with fantastic ancient metal crafts and bronze artifacts is a major tourist attraction too. I was told there is a group of ultra-rich Anambrarians who have formed a club called Club 100. The membership of this club is defined by their wealth and their desire to be their brother’s keepers. Every week they troop into Anambra from wherever they are to support and fraternise with their club members who are either wedding or burying someone or taking a chieftaincy title. Each of them donates a mandatory one million naira to the celebrant.


That means that the celebrant has the sum of 100 million naira for his ceremony. If you needed any evidence that Anambrarians are rolling in opulence this is it. Anambra’s land space is occupied by several billionaires per square metre. Is that an exaggeration? Take a trip there. The opulence is there, poking its fingers into your eyes. Chief Obiano, with a degree in Accountancy and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Lagos has an affinity with figures. As a former banker he knows a thing or two about how businesses can succeed or fail. He says that his airport project will be a success. This optimism may give Anambrarians the assurance that he must have crunched the numbers. The State’s Commissioner of Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr C. Don Adinubi shares the Governor’s sunny optimism about the airport project. C. Don, as he is popularly known, says that what will make the Umueri airport project successful is the fact that the private sector will be fully integrated into the project. If that happens then the airport has a bigger chance for success than some of the airports that now operate only on a single revenue stream: aeuronautical revenue. The thinking around the establishment of Umueri airport seems right because Anambra has a vibrant manufacturing, export and import and industrial complex.

SlayerForever:
While the airports in the East may be too close together according to you, they still make much more economic sense than those obscure airports you're talking about in the North that are "well spaced". Those airports are of zero economic impact. Zero. In fact I daresay the economic impact is in the negative(-), those airports have taken more than they've given. They are complete wastes.

Obi1kenobi:
Ogun state, Nigeria's industrial capital, has been Nigeria's top recepient of Foreign Direct Investment for several years now, and it doesn't have any airport. There are capital investments that can bring investors, like gas pipelines to industrial clusters (which Ogun benefited heavily from since Obasanjo's presidency), or IPP power projects to deliver more output to the under-served Anambra grid. Imo state have had an airport for a very long time and it didn't transform the state. Enugu have had a Federal international airport for a long time and it hasn't done any magic in the state either: the little that they attracted in their state is the legacy of their days as capital of the Eastern region. For majority of states that own airports, it's just a money-guzzling vanity project that often decays because they are not self-sustaining without Federal government bailouts.

You are kidding yourself if you think an airport in Anambra will become a national flight hub that will transform Anambra. Incidentally, I'm picking my mum up from the Lagos airport on Tuesday from an Enugu flight. She's in Anambra and it should have been a Monday flight from Asaba but I couldn't find any flights to book for her in Asaba airport because there are so few flights from that airport. So I had to find a flight leaving Enugu and the earliest one I found was Tuesday. If Anambra residents can't make Asaba airport a busy flight hub, they won't do it either to an Anambra airport. Asaba airport is less than 5 minutes drive from Onitsha. You can literally see it from right across the Niger bridge. Far closer than most residents of Lagos are to MMA (you would expect at least an hour drive going from VI in Lagos to MMA). And that's not mentioning Enugu and Imo airports which also serve Anambrarians. We're surrounded by airports in a very small geographic area (Anambra, Enugu and Imo combined are smaller than most Northern states and even Southern states like Oyo and Cross River). So an airport won't work the magic many of you think it would. In light of far greater priorities in the state that could transform lives, I can only deduce that we're building it for vanity purposes so we can say "we sef get our own airport".

eduj:
Booked a flight online for someone coming from Lagos.In the process,I discovered about 3 airlines run lagos-imo flights daily (even on Sundays).
Before I could confirm my payment online,I was informed the flight was all filled up.I had to book a flight two days away because that of the next day was also booked up.
Even at that,what I eventually paid for wasn't even first class. It made me realize how much patronage that imo airport is getting.
Imo state isn't even among the top 3 industrialised states in the East. so my brother, anyone saying we don't need airports or rails in the East is just being mischievous

Nigercity:
Thanks bro
Me self am still in shock, of the Aba I saw
I was expecting all those horrible internet pictures (bad roads)
I even came with enough nose masks
Lolz..
Only to discover that most bad roads in Aba are mainly federal
And the state government too are paying little or less attention to some of there own bad roads

And they aren't as many,as they are on the internet

Truth be told
Aba has more bad roads on the internet
Than real life

Nigercity:
The British really finish planning work for ABA City

Nigercity:
Another pained soul spotted
Now Tell me which part of Aba
Looks like village?
(Hope u Know what a village is)

Maybe u haven't even been to the Aba b4
Just like previous me.
And don't mistake poor drainage system in water logged Ariaria, some part of obiohia and ohanku
(Including Aba Port Harcourt road) to all Aba

Also many Nigerian cities have slums x10 the size of the ones in Aba
More especially pH, oyoibo (both in Rivers state), Lagos, Abuja and co

History555:
Come to iyana iba, down to okoko and see dirty, filth, rubbish total disorder

EasternActivist:
Dear are you proud of this your answer Or in your mind do you feel you've made sense more than the person you quoted!?!

GitmoAuditors:
Pix- 1 - Onitsha

Pix- 2- Ibadan(capital of yorubaland)


These pictures should be a cause for worry for any sincere omuluabi .

Customtest:
True talk..
Worst forms of dirty roads and environ I v ever seen in my life

gidgiddy:
I dont know how anybody can call the second Niger bridge a "South East" project? A bridge that has one end in the South East, and the other end in the South South. This is a South East/ South South project.

GuyWise:
Nna mehnnnnnnn


Many people don't know that many of the products they are using on a dialy basis that have tags like 'made in China' 'Made in P.R.C' 'Made in Italy' etc are Aba products.


Igbo Amaka.


Look at Aba and you will see the Igbo man creativity.

BastardWike:
Aba has gained very bad media image, it's not just nairaland. Go to Facebook, Twitter or any social media site and see the sort of negative attention Aba often gets. While the city has stagnated over the years due to terrible leaders that have governed the State since 1999, the private sector has continued to make great strides.

Go to Ariaria and its parks, you will marvel at the volume of footwears, bags and other consumer products being packed in big bales for distribution accros Nigeria. The same thing when you go to Azikiwe/Asa axis, especially around shopping center/Kent, and you will also be impressed with volume of clothings being packed in bales for distribution across Nigeria. Items such as boxers, singlets, pants, shirts, suits, overalls, uniforms, bedspreads etc are mass produced there in clusters. Many Aba boys will buy boxers there at very low prices and travel to P.H or Bayelsa to sell. The same thing obtains in furniture and other household goods that are mass produced in Aba. If they should be putting Aba made logo on their items you will be shocked to discover that most things, especially in the categories I mentioned, will be Aba products.[

Abdul111:
Leave Saraki alone abeg. He's done more for his people than any politician from your state has done for you people. the SE is supposed to be the most developed region in this country by far but thanks to your greedy politicians the region is dragging with a state like Kwara. Even your own rich kinsmen keep running away from the SE to invest in other parts of the country. you've got billions of Naira being allocated to you guys yearly coz of your oil but there's no reasonable development or infrastructure to show for it. you no even get shame na Kwara you de follow drag. its easy for you to criticize Saraki now. Nonsense

LukasPodolski:
This is Kam Holding, the biggest steel manufacturing company in Nigeria after Ajaokuta steel company..

Not an irrelevant Refinery, wetin Dem dey refine there? Coconut oil?

LukasPodolski:
I asked for infrastructures not palm oil and unity school scores.

LukasPodolski:
I asked for infrastructures not palm oil and unity school scores.

LukasPodolski:
I asked for infrastructures not palm oil and unity school scores.

LukasPodolski:
see this fool we are talking of infrastructures baba is talking about their 2 cup of oil, who is this degenerate?

palm of refinery? WTF?

do you know the number of farms in Kwara? Shongai farm, Bachita Sugar company,

i just google searched the anyim stadium, it's one ugly 10k capacity stadium LMAO.

Jamb strength? lmao

Rashidi yekini (the highest super eagles scorer)

Bishop Oyedepo (More influencial than any igboman alive)

Femi Adebayo

Lagbaja

Segun Toriola (the greatest table tennis star in west Africa)

Kunle Afolayan.

baba show us special infrastructures not palm oil.

i just google searched for the pictures of your Owerri Airport, it looks like a smoking joint (no offense)

show us infrastructures not palm oil and 2littres of oil well

hahah

LukasPodolski:
The first of it's kind in Nigeria, show me something like this in Imo state.

the Aviation college, Ilorin..

The first of it's kind in the Nigeria, where rich kids pay millions Annually.

LukasPodolski:
Ilorin city stadium complex has a capacity of 18,000 spectators, which also houses the only baseball court in Nigeria.

show me something of this kind in State.

only Enugu stadium is bigger than Ilorin stadium in the whole of igboland.

BastardWike:
Lol, stop decieving yourself. All those things you wrote is fantasy to console yourself.
Igbos control importation, business, services, retail and wholesale trade etc in Nigeria. Even there in the SW both Lagos and other states, Igbos dominate the Yorubas talk more of other regions in Nigeria.

All you listed from 1 to 15 are undiluted lies. I don't banter in sentimental argument. What do you mean by you control iron and steel, cement, plastic trade, sea food, rubber sandals and the rest? Are you in this Nigeria at all??

Do you want us to start mentioning local manufacturing brands owned by Igbos and let's compare with those owned by Yorubas?

You control clothing yet Aba is known across West Africa as home of clothings, shoes and bags? Aba supplies the whole of Nigeria and beyond! Where is your clothing manufacturing base?

Obamaofusa:
So showing a couple of houses from different sides is development,abi?

You know the kind of houses built in GRAs that you always post as development, Igboland does not have up to 7 GRAs as a whole but only Ibadan city in Yorubaland has more than 9 GRAs.You see your life?