By Concerned Ebonyi citizen
Ebonyi airport hasn’t seen even one airline one month after it was commissioned in an elaborate event in which the state government spent millions of naira.
The state government spent over 30 billion naira building this airport that has now been abandoned when most ebonyi indigenes cannot afford three square meals. It is estimated that ebonyi has 80% poverty rate, which is among the highest in Nigeria.
Literacy rate in ebonyi is equally very low as most ebonyi indigenes haven’t seen the four walls of any educational institution.
When the airport was being constructed, some people argued that the billions being wasted would have been spent on human resources development and educating Ebonyi people in formal educational system. Or rather invest the billions in commercial rice farm which is where Ebonyi has absolute advantage in order to create employment opportunities for the army of unemployed Ebonyi indigenes.
Till date, no Nigerian commercial airline has taken passengers to that airport. Is it that the airport isn’t commercially viable which made major airlines to abandon it or that Ebonyi people cannot afford flight tickets?
Most people now use the airport as a motorpark and a sightseeing amusement center for many ebonyi indigenes who doesn’t know what an airport looks like.
Does an agrarian state like Ebonyi really need an airport, more especially when enugu state airport is just 45mins away.
