Early this week, eerie photographs of structural skeletons, seemingly standing in limbo, flooded the cybersphere. A closer look at the pictures and the accompanying footnote indicated that they emanated from the much-hyphed Anambra Airport City Project.
Sitting on a 1,500 hectare land and located at Ivite Umueri, Anambra East local government area of the state, the project, like several others initiated by Governor Willy Obiano, continues to be shrouded in uncertainties.
Conceived under a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) platform, for which his administration is infamously known, the Airport project is somewhat progressing towards a mirage.
Flagged off on April 11, 2017, Governor Obiano had boisterously announced that the state would not have to spend a dime of it’s money, as the project would be solely financed by Sinoking Enterprises, a Chinese concern.
The first sign of looming danger, however, emerged when a cursory search conducted on the company indicated that it was almost non-existent. Besides it’s website being last updated in 2015 – two long years before the touted MOU with the Anambra State Government – Sinoking was not on any record, as having executed any task close to the building of an airstrip, talk more about an aeropolis.
From then on, up until today, developments surrounding the project have remained closely kept secret, sparking anxiety whether the project would even be fully realised before Governor Obiano exits in 15 months time.
Already, the initial completion date of April, 2020 is eight months gone, with the new date of April 30, 2021 less than five months away.
Also worrisome, analysts posit, is the fact that against the firm promise of the governor that the project would be executed at no cost to the state, the reality today indicates otherwise.
For instance, in the current Year 2020 budget, Governor Obiano allocated N6 Billion for the project. Also, in the 2021 budget recently presented, the sum of N5.8 Billion was reportedly earmarked for the completion of the Airport. Add these to the N10 Billion channeled to the job, from the discounted promissory notes gotten by the state from federal authorities, and one is left wondering what contribution Sinoking, now operating as Elite International Investments, is making towards the realisation of the project.
Yet, it remains a “build, operate, manage and transfer agreement.” Who is building, and who will operate?
Without a doubt, Governor Obiano appears desirous of delivering the Airport as a signature parting gift to ndi Anambra. But what rankles is the apparent ‘Greek gift’ colouration surrounding the entire packaging of the Airport deal.
Pray, what in vivid terms, as against a vague MOU, are the contributions of Sinoking, nay Elite International Investments, to warrant having a 75 per cent stake; or Orient Petroleum Resources cornering 20 per cent equity; while Anambra state – known and verifiable executor of the project – is left with a misery five per cent?
And this, inspite of the huge land and infrastructure investment which the state is committing to the project.
The haze surrounding the aforementioned instead of getting illuminated by official explanation, rather gets even foggier as the same government imposed a “no-go-area” tag within and around the project site.
Five months ago, when some reporters defied the illegal directive and went for an on-the-spot assessment of the progress of work, they nearly paid with their lives.
The four journalists, including messrs David-Chyddy Eleke of Thisday, Titus Eleweke, Daily Trust and Chimezie Anaso of the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), had returned with tales of woe, after a truck was deployed to chase their car out of the place.
Marcel Ifejiofor, Commissioner of Works, who was at the site at the time of the journalists’ visit, had instead of assisting them gain entrance rather lampooned them thus:”Who told you to come here? Nobody is allowed to come to this place o. I’m even inside the project site now, but I can’t permit you to come in. Just leave that place now, in the interest of your lives.”
Really? Besides being a constitutional infraction, preventing journalists from carrying out their legitimate duties, the moot question remains: what is the Anambra State Government hiding regarding the Airport project?
The answer(s) may, indeed, not be far-fetched.
Right from the outset of the Obiano administration, it has wallowed in a litany of ill-fated MOUs. With many conceived as political blitzkrieg, others were cleverly designed to pass off Obiano as a “working governor.”
From the widely celebrated $5 million Ugu(vegetable) export scam in 2016, to the Amansea abattoir, the tomatoes puree deal, the estate development gambit thrown at an APGA chieftain from Nnewi, Governor Obiano is reputed to have signed no fewer than 500 MOUs, all of which continue to dangle on billboards and the pieces of paper on which they are written.
Of particular interest, perhaps, is the July 2016 investment deal which the governor gleefully told the people he had entered with Zolt Energy Limited, to build a 40 megawatts embedded power generating plant in Ogbaru council area of the state.
For a people whose major single lane road is still at the stage which former Governor Peter Obi left it seven years ago, Obiano’s power plant carrot is, indeed, a gratitious insult.
Now, not only has the 18 months completion period lapsed by more than two years, without a trip of sand on site, the development appears to be in tandem with the governor’s style: the more you look, the less you see.