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When last did you use the Sam Mbakwe Airport in Owerri? And how did you feel after the experience? Did you feel very bad and angry as I did after using that airport recently?
I doubt if the Biafran Airport at Uli was that neglected? I have the feeling that the airport in Owerri should be the only one in the country built with funds squeezed out from orphans, widows, school children and all categories Imo citizens.
The people had put in their last dime to get the airport built knowing that if they did not, no one would do it for them. It was clear to them that they were not as privileged as some other “true Nigerian” states, where over-equipped “International Airports” were rapidly built, but which, though not neglected as the one in Owerri, now lie idle daily for want of patronage.
The Imo Airport was meant to serve the people of Anambra (from Onitsha down to Owerri), parts of Abia and Ebonyi, and, of course, the entire Imo. The successful realisation of the airport project brought joy and relief to many people who had before then relied only on the Port Harcourt Airport, with the attendant adventure of getting to their destinations after landing.
Later, the Federal Government “accepted” to take over the airport. And that was where the pleasant story ended.
Now the airport looks like an abandoned wartime community primary school or something. The place looks so lonely and unwanted. We organised an international conference near Owerri recently, and I was so embarrassed that we had to bring in the foreign participants through that “airport.” The Arrival Hall looks exactly like an abandoned warehouse, without doors, windows (wooden or glasses) or anything to show it is meant for human beings.
The nearby toilets welcome visitors with a most repelling rancid stench. I am quite sure that water supply to that place has since become an unaffordable luxury. Only the Sosoliso Airlines (bless them) continues to land there, and once you miss the 8.30 am flight from Lagos, you will have to wait for another day or go to Owerri through Port Harcourt. My wife and I had to leave home by 6.00am to get a ticket.
Nobody can convince me that there is no deliberate policy to frustrate the continued existence of that airport. Go there in the afternoon after Sosoliso have come and gone, and you would meet a near ghost town. You can’t even get a snack to buy, since the sellers close shop once the plane has gone.
If President Obasanjo and his Vice were to visit Owerri today to canvass for votes, they would use that airport. Yet none of them have deemed it fit to put the place in order. And the reason is obvious: it is located in Igboland, a conquered land that must be made to continue bearing the burden of their defeat forever. What a shame.
Abuja Airport, Abuja (Hausa Land, built with oil money from IGBOLAND
Ikeja Airport, Lagos (Yoruba Land), built with oil money from IGBOLAND
Owerri Airport, Owerri (Igbo Land)
Today, the Igbos have no international airport, even though cumulatively, Igbos have held the civilian-era aviation ministry longer than any other ethnic group, namely, by K.O. Mbadiwe, Mbazulike Amechi and the immediate erstwhile Dr. Kema Chikwe. ...how can we complain to others that we have no international airport? We will be making a fool of ourselves when those we are complaining to already know that our sons and daughters dominated the aviation ministry..." (Aneke, 2003)
" K.O. Mbadiwe, an aviation minister, rode on horseback, with pomp and majesty, to open the Kano airport as an international airport, when it wasn’t as big as Enugu airport then. The Enugu airport has been designated international, on paper... now, but that was the end of the story... it has not seen the light of the day. Today Igbos are compelled to boost the economy of other regional airports by being forced, without choice, to utilize those other regional international airports. The disarray and loss of direction among the Igbos have left them a pity...
"Infrastructure is dilapidated, roads are impassable and a palpable sense of helplessness permeates Igboland in both cities and countryside...The situation has also affected the self worth and confidence of the Igbos forcing an unrestrained scramble and desperation for title-taking hitherto unprecedented in Igboland, as if titles like Chief, Igwe, Obi, Nze, Lolo, Idi, Ikenga, Ozo, etc. will change the reality..." (Aneke, 2003)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "...one grudge that the people continue to hold against her (Chikwe)... is the dilapidated state of the Sam Mbakwe airport. No one in Owerri or the entire state can reconcile the giant leap recorded by the former minister at the airport in Lagos, and other such places like Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja with the ramshackle state of the
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Nigeria govt are not real,They are not ready for peace and so-called one nigeria.So They igbos should once agaun joing hands to teach the hausa and yoruba govt that we dont need them.
biafra we stand .only then will our blood remain developed.
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