₦airaland Forum

For years, Gateway International Airport sat quietly on the Ilishan-Remo/Iperu axis of Ogun State, a patch of undulating land that many doubted could ever host a functioning runway. Today, with an Interim Aerodrome Operational Permit in hand and an April 2026 commissioning behind it, the airport is no longer a rumour. What has now emerged, however, is a figure too large to wave away with ceremony: a reported $800 million price tag, translating to well over one trillion naira of public money. That number deserves more scrutiny than applause, Seunmanuel Faleye writes.

Every serious airport story begins with a simple question. Was this Ogun State’s money to spend this way, and did the people get value for it? The original idea, conceived during the administration of Otunba Senator Gbenga Daniel, was never meant to work like this. The plan, then, was a public-private partnership in its truest form, where the state would hand over land as its only equity contribution, while private investors carried the full weight of financing, building and operating the airport. That model made sense. Private money moves carefully. Investors do not release hundreds of millions of dollars without exhaustive due diligence on passenger numbers, cargo potential, airline interest and a realistic path to profit. When the risk sits with investors, taxpayers sleep easy.

Somewhere along the line, that arrangement shifted, and the burden moved from private capital to the public purse. That shift is the real story, and it is the one Ogun State owes its citizens a full explanation for. If more than a trillion naira of government money has gone into a single airport, residents deserve to see exactly where it went, subhead by subhead, budget year by budget year, from 2017 through to 2026. They deserve to see the procurement records, the contract sums, the names behind the companies that won the jobs, and the certificates that confirm work was actually done to the standard paid for.

Put the figure beside what similar airports have cost elsewhere in the world, and the questions grow sharper. The ANR Robinson International Airport terminal in Tobago cost about $870 million. Romania’s Henri Coandă terminal cost roughly $862 million. Jordan’s Queen Alia terminal, a major passenger facility in Amman, was built for about $800 million. Tokyo’s Haneda Terminal 2 North Satellite expansion came in around the same figure. Even Western Sydney’s new runway component, part of a much larger airport still under construction, sits close to that mark. Compare those projects with what currently stands at Iperu:

A single passenger terminal, modest in scale compared with the terminals listed above
One runway, whose exact length, pavement strength and aircraft category have not been fully disclosed to the public

A control tower, with no public record yet of who installed it or at what cost
Limited cargo-handling infrastructure, despite the airport’s agro-cargo branding
No published masterplan showing what future phases the $800 million is meant to cover

That gap is what should worry every Ogun taxpayer. The airports it is being measured against were either full international terminals serving millions of passengers a year, or components of far larger, multi-phase developments. A bungalow-style terminal, one runway and a control tower, for a sum that rivals some of the biggest terminal projects on earth, is not a comparison that flatters Iperu.

Then there is the question of actual use. The state has said the airport is operational, and reports point to Gateway Air running routes linking Iperu to Abuja, with onward connections to Port Harcourt, Calabar and Jos, alongside a service reportedly involving ValueJet. That is a start, but it is far from proof of commercial viability. An aerodrome permit only confirms regulatory clearance to fly. It says nothing about how many paying passengers are boarding, how much cargo is moving, or whether any airline is there because of genuine demand rather than state incentives. Until Ogun State publishes verified figures on flight frequency, passenger loads and cargo tonnage, the airport remains, commercially speaking, unproven.

None of this means Ogun was wrong to want an airport. A functioning agro-cargo hub could genuinely support the state’s farmers, manufacturers and exporters. But good intentions do not excuse a lack of transparency. If the money truly came from the public treasury, an independent forensic audit is not an insult to the state; it is the very least the citizens who footed the bill are owed. Every naira spent on the airport should be traceable to a budget line, a contract, and a completed piece of work.

Ogun citizens are not against development. They are against being asked to celebrate a runway while the books remain closed. Until the audit comes, the airport’s real cost, and its real worth, remain an open question.

Total Budget: ₦1.668 trillion ("Budget of Sustainable Legacy"Projected IGR: ~₦509.88 billion (including roughly ₦250 billion targeted directly through the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service)Federal Allocation (FAAC): Projected at ₦554.81 billionCapital Expenditure: ₦1.044 trillion (63%)Recurrent Expenditure: ₦624.76 billion (37%

Samuels90:
😂😂😂 all una Governors for Naija na Con men

aworatak:
The white elephant airport project is the reason why dapo abiodun stalled development in ogun for over 7 years.
The interesting part is that the easily manipulated electorate will reward him for his incompetence by electing him as senator come 2027.

Samuels90:
😂😂😂 all una Governors for Naija na Con men

nairalanda1:
LOL, any time I see taxpayers asking questions...the airport did not come from the tax monies.

Ogun budget is as follows



Only about 250 billion naira comes from the State IRS...ie is taxpayer money.

Tax uptake in most states is very low to fund projects like these, hence the borrowing

(Airport is not even neccesary...a better idea would be a railway link between the lagos airport and the state...but no).

sulaak:
$800 million will fund between 500-1000 MW depending on supplier instead of wasting it on a vanity project.

sulaak:
$40 million airport for $800 million.

This is daylight robbery; that's why these crooks prefer conference centres, airports and flyovers instead of education, electricity, and healthcare

FBIBOT:
What do these guys even do with huge amounts of looted funds... It impossible to exhaust it

A bungalow-style terminal, one runway and a control tower, for a sum that rivals some of the biggest terminal projects on earth, is not a comparison that flatters Iperu.

Angelfrost:
Nigerian governors are the main reasons why this nation can never truly prosper.

What a single Nigerian governor loots from his state will make a Mexican Cartel chief shocked to his marrow.

nairalanda1:
I honestly do not understand why a state that is within shouting distance of a major international airport needs...an airport.