Senate Committee inspects site of Abuja Airport second runway

The Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, on Tuesday, carried out inspection on the proposed site for the construction of the second runway for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
Senator Shehu Sani, Chairman of the Committee, who led members, said the visit was in respect of the $5.5 billion loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Upper Chamber.
Sani explained that the Abuja airport second runway project was one of the items on the list of what the loan would be used for.
“Some few weeks ago, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria received a letter from Mr. President requesting for an approval for a $5.5 billion foreign loan.
“The Senate referred the request to this committee, which is the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt.
“This committee is statutorily mandated and positioned to scrutinise loan requests and invite beneficiaries to come and explain why we should approve or not approve the loan request.
“This international airport is on paper a beneficiary of this proposed loan,’’ he said.
Sani stated that the committee had earlier invited and listened to the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on why a loan for the airport should be approved.
He added that Sirika told the Senate that the money would be used for the construction of a second runway at the NAIA.
According to him, as a procedure, they have to be there physically to also inspect the proposed site that we are going to have the second runway.
“Now, the report and the facts that we are going to get from here will help us to analyse and appraise whether you are eligible for us to grant the request.
“In as much as the country does not have enough money to construct a new runway and we are going to borrow from the international market, we have a duty to ensure that whatever the government is borrowing is worthy of money being spent on it.
“We are being very meticulous in terms of scrutinising loan requests, for the very fact that most of the terms of these loans, the payment plan stretches 30 to 40 years.
“So we have not just a constitutional duty but a moral duty to leave behind documents and reasons for the actions that we have taken,’’ he stated.
Sani, however, disclosed that the National Assembly had appropriated N10 billion for the runway project in the 2017 budget of the Federal Government.
The Airport Manager, NAIA, Mr Mahmud Sani, stressed the need for a second runway for the airport was long overdue, adding that it was only Abuja airport that did not have alternative runway.
Sani explained that other international airports like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna had Air Force bases have alternative runways.
He explained that the approval of the loan by the senate would help the government to realise the ambition of having a second runway at the airport.
The Airport Manager disclosed that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was at stage of engaging a consultant that would review the design before it could be presented to tender board.
On how much the project is expected to cost, he said, that the authority would not know until the design was reviewed by the consultant to be engaged.