Peter Obi, former Anambra governor and Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has criticised the Federal Government’s decision to allocate ₦712.3 billion for airport renovation amid rising hunger in the country.
Obi said it was “profoundly troubling” that the budget announcement came on August 1, the same day national dailies published a United Nations report warning that 34 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger.
“This is not just an abstract statistic. “It speaks of real people, parents, children, neighbours, and friends, who are going to bed hungry and waking up without hope of a meal,” Obi said in a post on X.
He questioned the rationale behind spending such a huge amount on one airport, noting that in 2013, Nigeria secured a $500 million loan from the China Exim Bank, with counterpart funding, to upgrade five international airports including Lagos.
“If that massive investment was made barely a decade ago, what justifies an even larger sum today for just one airport — especially at a time when Nigerians are starving, internally displaced, and desperate?” he asked.
Obi said infrastructure should not take priority over human development, especially when millions are living in poverty and insecurity.
“A government that builds grandiose infrastructure while its people starve is not building a nation — it is betraying one,” he said.
He argued that food security is national security and should be treated as such.
His words: “While physical infrastructure like airports and roads matter, they cannot take precedence over hunger, health, education, and security.
“We must prioritise and concentrate our resources in critical areas of development: security of lives and property, health, education, and pulling our people out of poverty.”
Obi urged the Tinubu administration to rethink its budget priorities and focus on policies that directly improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians.