The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has defended plans by the Federal Government to remodel the Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos with ₦712bn, saying it is a quest to meet world-class standards.
“The roof of the airport is leaking; the place is decrepit and smelly. You see people selling Indomie and all kinds of kiosks erected there. The ceilings are failing, and the carousels are not working because their parts are not in the market anymore,” he said.
The approval of ₦712bn by the Federal Government for the project last week has triggered discontent from various quarters as critics argued that it was a misplacement of priority by the Bola Tinubu Presidency at a time when millions of Nigerians groan under all-time high inflation, hunger and skyrocketing living cost, sparked by the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange windows by the government.
However, Keyamo argued that the airport upgrade would be funded “through the Renewed Hope Infrastructural Funding. It is not a budgetary kind of expenditure. It is from the special infrastructure fund”.