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Dateline: Awka, Anambra
Recently, Governor Chukwuma Soludo shocked political observers and citizens alike with a boastful declaration: his administration intends to construct a brand-new airport in Ndikelionwu, Orumba North LGA, and aims to complete it within a staggering one year. Branded as part of a grand “aerotropolis” and industrial park, this proposed multi-billion-naira venture is being aggressively marketed as a game-changer for the state.
But let’s pause and ask the most basic question of economic prudence: Why?
Anambra State already boasts the Chinua Achebe International Cargo and Aviation Airport in Umueri. Commissioned just a few years ago by his predecessor, Willie Obiano, this airport is fully operational, well-maintained, and successfully serving the commercial and passenger needs of the state with major airlines like Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines. To propose a second airport less than four years after the first one opened is not just an extravagant duplication of infrastructure—it borders on fiscal recklessness.
The Real Crisis: A State Swallowed by the Earth
While the governor is busy drawing up blueprints for a redundant aviation hub, the very ground beneath the feet of Ndi Anambra is literally caving in.
If Governor Soludo needs a reminder of the state’s actual most pressing needs, he needs only to listen to his own recent cries of alarm. Just days ago, Soludo himself declared a state of emergency on Anambra’s environment, confessing that gully erosion and flooding are the state’s “number one existential threat.” He admitted a terrifying reality: while places like Lagos are expanding into the ocean, Anambra, the state with the second-smallest landmass in Nigeria, is actively shrinking.
Whole communities are being swallowed by devastating gully erosions. Indiscriminate sand mining and blocked waterways have turned rainy seasons into death sentences for residents and businesses. If an entire state budget for the next ten years cannot fix the erosion menace, as the governor himself recently admitted, how can the government justify siphoning billions of Naira into a vanity airport project? Just last week, a greater part of the dualized Nnobi, Agulu, Ekwuluobia road which was poorly and dismally executed was washed away by floods to the total chagrin and consternation of Anambra people
Building a second airport in a state that is rapidly losing its landmass to ecological disasters is akin to buying a chandelier for a house that is on fire. Ndi Anambra do not need another runway; they need roads that don’t wash away, functional drainages, and immediate, aggressive ecological interventions before their ancestral homes vanish into the abyss.
The Ghost of the “Dubai-Taiwan” Dream
And what has become of the much-touted “Anambra Dubai-Taiwan” dream?
During his campaign, Prof. Soludo sold a euphoric vision of transforming Anambra into the Dubai and Taiwan of Africa. He promised a meticulously planned smart megacity, robust wealth creation, and a seamless technological and economic ecosystem. Yet, years into his tenure, the silence on this grand blueprint is deafening. Nobody is talking about it anymore because the reality on the ground contradicts the fantasy.
The systemic urban renewal, poverty reduction, and strategic industrialization that built Dubai and Taiwan have been replaced by isolated, white-elephant projects. Dubai wasn’t built by ignoring existential ecological crises, and Taiwan’s economic miracle wasn’t birthed by duplicating underutilized infrastructure just for the sake of political point-scoring.
The Bottom Line
Governor Soludo must abandon this ego trip and face the nitty gritty, unglamorous work of saving Anambra State. An aerotropolis in Orumba North will not stop the floodwaters from destroying homes, nor will it fill the gullies swallowing Anambra communities.
Until the state’s existential environmental threats are definitively tackled, and the existing Chinua Achebe International Airport is pushed to its absolute maximum capacity, a new airport is nothing but a colossal misplacement of priorities. Ndi Anambra deserve a governor who builds on solid ground, not one who builds castles in the air while the earth crumbles below.
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