By Olusegun Koiki
…Stakeholders Insist 2nd Runway Unnecessary
LAGOS – The China Civil Engineering Construc-tion Corporation (CCECC), the contractor awarded the construction of the second runway for the Nnamdi Azikiwe Interna-tional Airport (NAIA), Abuja, has aban-doned the project, Daily Independent can reveal.
A source, who knows about the project, confided in Daily Independent over the weekend that the contractor abandoned the contract a few months after the contro-versies that trailed its 591 percent upward review of the contract sum.
The contractor had increased the con-tractual sum to N532 billion from the initial N90 billion agreed with the Federal Gov-ernment through the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development in 2023, citing the downturn in the economy. –
This increase in the contractu-al sum did not go down well with Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Devel-opment, who threatened to cancel the contract.
Before now, the CCECC had agreed a N64 billion contractual sum with Sen. Hadi Sirika, the for-mer Minister of Aviation, while it was also allegedly mobilised to the site.
It was, however, not clear if the contractor had refunded the mobilised sum to the Federal Gov-ernment since it has abandoned the job.
Daily Independent also learnt that immediately the contractor abandoned the job, Keyamo for-mally informed the presidency through a letter, but the outcome of the letter could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this in report.
Also, Keyamo in a text message to our correspondent on the matter, confirmed that work had been sus-pended on the project.
The minister said that the min-istry was still seeking presidential approval for the review of the con-tract.
He said: “The contractor stopped work for now because they are asking for a review of the contract sum and we are seeking presidential approval for it.”
The plan for a second runway at Abuja airport began in 2009 under Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, the then Minister of Aviation, who present-ed a cost of N64 billion from Julius Berger, after scaling it down from some higher figures, while Public Works (PW) suggested it could be done for N32 billion, with the pre-vailing pricing in 2010.
The N64 billion sum then gener-ated controversies among the pub-lic who suspected foul play. This led to its disapproval by the National Assembly.
In 2022, the Federal Govern-ment again, reached an agreement with CCECC for the construction of the runway at N64 billion, but increased to N90 billion in 2023.
The sum was also hiked by the contractor in 2024 to N532 billion, a whopping 591.1 percent increase.
Commenting on the develop-ment, Capt. Roland Iyayi, President of Topbrass Aviation Ltd, said that a second runway for Abuja airport was needless.
Iyayi told Daily Independent that lack of a second runway at the Abuja airport would not have any effect on its operations.
According to him, the airport was used only to its 30 percent ca-pacity, insisting that there was no urgent need for a second runway at the airport.
Iyayi also posited that the Fed-eral Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in recent times, invested in aircraft movement and moving equipment in some major airports in the country, which would make evacuation of aircraft from any part of the runway easier in case of incidents or accidents.
Iyayi also queried the N532 bil-lion upward review of the contract sum from the previous N90 billion, wondering how the contractor could inflate the sum by almost 600 percent within the spate of 18 months.
He declared that the Blaise Di-agne International Airport in Sen-egal, which was commissioned a few years ago with two runways, terminal building, layout for nav-igation and other facilities was cheaper than the construction of a second runway for Abuja airport.
He said: “The point is, when you have invested in something that can give you a backup, you now think, a second runway is what we’ll do. And by the way, in some cases, when you have a crash in an airport, even with two runways, a second runway may not be useful.
“This is so because the area covered by the crash may cover the whole airport. It depends on how it happens. So, a second runway is not a guarantee that the airport will remain open after a crash. For me, the runway is less than 30 percent of its installed capacity at this point in time. So, any second runway is just a waste.
“I don’t want to sound outra-geous, but the point is, how can a contract move from N90 billion to N532 billion? You are not building an airport. Senegal built a new air-port for $250 million. A brand-new airport. I’m talking of terminal buildings, taxiways and the run-way.”
Also, Capt. Samuel Caulcrick, aviation expert, said that as it stands, any project of the value of the runway awarded in naira was susceptible to variation because of naira’s volatile nature.
He regretted that Nigeria’s land-scape is littered with abandoned projects, as projects awarded in naira often face cost overruns as the currency depreciates.
He maintained that the Nigeri-an Procurement Act, stipulates that any significant changes to a proj-ect’s scope or cost (variations) re-quired presidential authorisation, expressing that new administra-tions often had different priorities and may be less inclined to approve variations for projects initiated by their predecessors.
“This leads to delays, suspen-sion, and ultimately, abandon-ment,” he added.
He also mentioned inadequate planning, poor project manage-ment, corruption and lack of funding as some of the factors that play significant roles in project abandonment.
Caulcrick, however, maintained that the state of the economy did not support a second runway for Abuja airport.
According to him, any closed runway situation could temporar-ily be addressed by diverting traf-fic to Minna airport for instance, stressing that the Minna-Abuja Road rehabilitation should be a top priority for the government as an alternative for Abuja airport.
He added: “I never supported a second runway for Abuja. What is needed is to send most of the oper-ating Abuja airport personnel to understudy Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom (U.K), which is the most efficient single-runway operation in the world.”
To Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu (retd), aviation security expert, none of the country’s airports, in-cluding Abuja and Lagos, qualified to have a second runway facility.
According to him, the total annual passenger traffic for the entire 22 airports of Nigeria was lesser than that of Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannes-burg in South Africa.
Findings show that Oliver Tam-bo International Airport with two parallel runways, welcomed a total of 12.3 million passengers in 2024, while available statistics revealed that the entire Nigerian airports within the same period processed only 15.6 million passengers.
Also, Ojikutu posited that the London Gatwick Airport saw 43.2 million passengers with 57 airlines and 2.1 million flights in 2024.
He insisted that environmen-tal and safety issues may make the construction of a second runway for Abuja airport impossible, not-ing that a ministerial committee set up in the early 2000s in its report, objected to a second runway at the present Abuja airport location, ex-cept it is relocated.
He added: “Every development in Nigerian aviation is political with no safety and security con-siderations or recommendations from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in accordance with the recommended standards and practices.
“Tell the minister to forget about a second runway for any airport, but he should direct the NCAA to enforce the regulations on the periodic maintenance pro-grammes it has approved for each airport. There is no need for a sec-ond runway for Abuja airport. The traffic does not require it.”
Already, the Federal Govern-ment had approved the sum of N825 million as compensation for the community affected by the construction of the Abuja second runway.
The government had said that the settlement with the Jiwa community was reached at an in-ter-agency meeting.
The second runway was con-ceived and designed in 2009 to han-dle Airbus A380-800F with Catego-ry three Airfield Lighting (AFL).
The body length of that aircraft is 73 metres, with a body height of 24 metres.
The wingspan is 79.8 metres and the maximum take-off weight is about 569,000kg, about 600 tons, which is equivalent to packing 30 trailers with a full load of cement. The runway length was estimated at 4.5 kilometres, with a width span of 75 metres.