PH Intl Airport: Why World Bank refused rehabilitation fund

After 103 passengers, mostly children of the Loyola Jesuit College Abuja, lost their lives in the December 11, 2005 tragic but historic crash of the Sosoliso aircraft at the Port Harcourt International Airport, the World Bank, apart from the N2bn released by the Rivers State Government, promised to aid the rehabilitation of the airport with some amount.

A source from the industry, who spoke under anonymity with our correspondent in Lagos on Friday, said the World Bank changed its mind at the last minute as it discovered conflicting figures in the budgeting, which had apparently been tampered with by Nigerian officials.

The source disclosed that the Nigerian aviation authorities were worried not knowing whether the prank was being played by the Ministry of Aviation or the officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria.

The change of mind by the World Bank, according to some aviation industry observers, could also have been influenced by the revelations surrounding the mismanagement of the N19.5bn Aviation Intervention Fund and the N2bn given by the Rivers State Government. The case is still under probe by the Senate.

Aviation experts have said that the airport was in a seriously bad state, having been downgraded by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. Pilots flying into the place have been complaining of serious sundry safety problems due to its grossly inadequate infrastructure.

The position of industry experts remain that it will be disastrous to wait for another major crash before waking up to this reality, as the memory of young future leaders of the country wasted at the airport is yet to be erased.

This was why, they said, the NCAA limited the types of aircraft that should be flying there in the meantime.

Industry sources said the award of the airfield lighting contract of the PHIA should equally be probed.

Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH revealed that the contract was awarded to a Nigerian contracting firm, which registered in the name of a popular German runway electrical installations company, apparently to get the contract.

Further investigations revealed that the company, which had earlier claimed partnership with the globally acclaimed German firm, was later discovered to have put up a lie as the German company denied such relationship.

Meanwhile, the World Bank had been made to believe that it was dealing with the popular German company. But it later discovered that it was a different firm that had no pedigree in airfield lighting installations.

What eventually blew everything into the open was the refusal of the bank to fund the airport�s infrastructure project, against its earlier promise. According to aviation sources, the bank discovered that the budget submitted by Nigerian aviation officials, had been allegedly doctored, with the content significantly inflated.

The sources, however, said there was confusion as to whether the culprits were FAAN or ministry officials.

Till date, the airfield lighting at PHIA could not be completed because of the controversy surrounding the contract

A former manager of the airport, Mr. Sam Akerele, said the rehabilitation was not handled professionally. He said if it were to be a private sector firm, the involved officials would be investigated and possibly jailed

According to him, the company initially promised to complete the work under three months. He said what started in 2006, lasted through that year, and took the whole of 2007. According to him, till date it has always been said that the runway had been completed, even when the airfield lighting had not been completed.

He stated that due to the shoddy way things were handled in the country, there was nothing wrong if both the airfield lighting and runway were handled simultaneously, which he said, would not have lasted more than five or six months.

An industry analyst, Group Captain John Obakpolor, who also decried the shoddy manner rehabilitation contracts were being handled in the country, also said the 18 left runway at the MMA, which had taken two years but yet with only the runway being almost completed, should have been done with a long time ago.

He said, �Our 18 left, they said they are just completing it after two years, and that they are just about starting the airfield light. Why is it that both cannot be handled at the same time. I have been telling our people that the way they handle things is bad. And all these things still boil down to corruption.�

Akerele, who said he took the PH airport from the state it was nicknamed �black hole� to the better stage it was before the decline, said unless a drastic measure was taken, safety would continue to be jeopardised.

According to him, many things are still wrong with the airport, including the terminal building, �which remains grossly inadequate.�

�At the PH international airport, do you know there is no demarcation between the domestic and international departure. I have been raising this issue for long,� he said.

The Aviation RoundTable scribe, however, counselled that a consultant should be allowed to oversee and fast-track the completion of the PH project.

He also said that the government must take a look at the provision of adequate security. At the same time, he said the government should ensure that the silent politics going on between the South and East in the place was removed.

�I recommend a consultant to oversee and fast-track the project. Secondly, adequate security must be provided there because the indigenes believe the airport is like oil field where they must be �settled�. An airport thrives when there is security. The two communities there; Omagwa and Ikpo, must be made to know that you don�t destroy what can make you grow. This lies in the hands of the Rivers State Government and the state�s Commissioner of Police,� he said.

The former chairman of Ministerial Committee on Airspace also alleged that the silent politics going on between the �Owerris� and the �Ikweres� on the airport issue should be removed.

He added that airports were not phrases, which the word �international� could just be added. He said, �An airport becomes international if it is a border point, where Immigration Service and Customs are brought in to clear passengers and cargoes.�

According to him, the nation does not need more than four international airports or at most six if it was divided based on the six geopolitical zones.

He said, �What we need is the spoke and hub system that collects and feed the hub, that is minor airports feed and take from the major ones. It is not because of the scale but the traffic. The need, the sustenance must be there. We need to change our orientation which we normally use to exploit people.�