On Wednesday December 18, 2025, during an interactive session with journalists at the quarterly meeting of the Akwa Ibom Council of Elders in Uyo, a former governor of the state and the one regarded as the father of modern Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, called for the establishment of a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub at the Uyo Airport, Akwa Ibom State, recently decorated with international status. Incidentally, the airport is named after him, as the brain behind its concept. He turned the sod for the first runway in the airport before the expiration of his tenure in 2007.
His successors, Obong Godswill Akpabio and Deacon Udom Emmanuel, ensured the project was ready for flight operations and had further facilities, respectively. The current governor, Pastor Umo Eno, pursued the project with fervent zeal and had it adorned with international regalia. International flight operations are scheduled to take off in the first quarter of next year. It is a story of sustained focus and commitment, one project that has occupied the priority attention of the state’s chief executives for a non-stop period of 23-plus years.
Obong Attah was excited when Akpabio commissioned the airport for flight services. He was elated when he was given his due by Emmanuel, who fittingly named the airport after him. He was apparently delighted when Eno raised the bar by taking it to the international arena. But he does not seem fulfilled. He would, ultimately, if the airport becomes an MRO hub for West Africa. That was his dream. And he is still fighting for its realisation.
Ordinarily, Attah should be satisfied that the project has gone this far. However, hindsight hunts him. He, for now, suffers delayed euphoria. Next door is the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar. It was designated an international airport in 1983 when the then Calabar Airport, which hitherto operated domestic services, was given the tag of international. It operated a few scheduled regional flights to neighbouring Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and now uses the tag to decorate its signage. That spectre may be behind Attah’s misery.
The interpretation of Attah’s apprehension regarding this antecedent is both reasonable and understandable. Margaret Ekpo International Airport offers a cautionary precedent. Although it was designated an international airport and at various points handled limited international operations, the absence of deliberate value-added aviation infrastructure, such as an MRO hub, cargo village, or aviation-linked industrial cluster, meant that the designation did not translate into enduring international relevance. Over time, the airport reverted largely to domestic operations, leaving the “international” tag largely nominal. Against this backdrop, Attah’s call suggests a concern that designation without structural anchoring risks becoming symbolic rather than transformative.
By raising the issue, Obong Attah appears to be making three interrelated arguments: That International status is not self-sustaining, that airports need economic anchors, and that regional competition is unforgiving.
As far as he is concerned, without embedded aviation services that generate constant technical and commercial activity, international flight operations alone are vulnerable to airline commercial decisions, route profitability and policy shifts. Once flights stop, the international status becomes hollow, just like the one next door.
It is an obvious fact that an MRO hub functions as a permanent, non-flight-dependent anchor. Unlike passenger routes, which airlines can withdraw at short notice, aircraft maintenance demand is continuous and structurally embedded, ensuring regular aircraft traffic, stable technical employment and predictable revenue streams.
More importantly, with a litter of airports in the southern part of Nigeria, including those that are barely better than air strips, carrying international designations, only those with distinct functional advantages will remain relevant. Attah recognises that VAIA must differentiate itself to avoid redundancy within the regional airport ecosystem.
But wait a minute: what’s the big deal with VAIA, Uyo, being designated an international airport? What does it represent? And, why is Obong Attah insisting on the MRO hub addition? Straight out! This whole development represents a strategic redefinition of what international airport status should mean for Nigeria. Rather than treating the designation as a symbolic or prestige-driven milestone, Attah’s intervention reframes it as a platform for aviation industrialisation, economic transformation and regional leadership.
At the core of his argument is the proposition that a modern international airport should transcend passenger and cargo handling to function as a technical, commercial and industrial aviation centre. This shifts the conversation from airport certification to aviation value-chain development, positioning Nigeria not merely as a consumer of foreign aviation services but as a producer and exporter of high-value technical services.
For Nigeria’s aviation sector, the implications are substantial. The country currently loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually to capital flight as airlines ferry aircraft abroad, primarily to Europe, the Middle East and Ethiopia, for heavy maintenance checks. A functional MRO hub in Akwa Ibom State would drastically reduce these foreign exchange outflows, retain aviation expenditure within the domestic economy and significantly lower operating costs for Nigerian carriers. By reducing aircraft downtime and improving fleet availability, a domestic MRO facility would also enhance airline safety, regulatory compliance and long-term sustainability. These are key challenges that have historically been the nemesis of Nigerian airlines.
Regionally, positioning Uyo as a West African MRO hub would strengthen Nigeria’s long-standing dream to lead aviation services in the sub-region. It would attract airlines from neighbouring countries, reduce dependence on Addis Ababa’s dominance in aircraft maintenance and align Nigeria’s aviation infrastructure with its population size, market scale and geographic centrality in West and Central Africa.
The economic value to Akwa Ibom State is equally monumental and transformative. Unlike routine airport operations, an MRO hub generates high-skilled employment for engineers, avionics specialists, inspectors and technical trainers, alongside indirect jobs in logistics, hospitality, security and ancillary services. This facilitates knowledge transfer, skills development and long-term technical capacity building.
For a state historically reliant on oil revenues, aviation maintenance represents a strategic diversification into high-technology services, positioning Akwa Ibom as an aviation-industrial hub rather than merely a transit location.
In the medium to long term, an MRO hub would boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by anchoring multiple revenue streams: hangar leasing, maintenance services, training and certification, and the growth of aviation-related support industries. These gains would complement existing state investments in aviation, tourism and conference infrastructure, including the emerging Aviation Village in Uyo, reinforcing VAIA’s role as an economic anchor.
Nationally, the broader economic benefits include increased foreign exchange earnings from servicing foreign-registered aircraft, improved balance-of-payments performance and the expansion of aviation-related export services. An MRO hub would also necessitate partnerships with global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Boeing, Airbus, and Pratt & Whitney, alongside certification under NCAA, EASA, and ICAO standards. This would elevate Nigeria’s aviation ecosystem beyond basic airport infrastructure into a mature, technology-driven sector capable of supporting national resilience during global disruptions.
Attah’s intervention is therefore strategically significant because it challenges policymakers to view international airport designation as an economic instrument rather than a political trophy. It aligns with global best practices where airports serve as anchors for industrial clusters and compels the Federal Government to articulate a long-term aviation industrial policy. His December 18 call builds on recent Federal Government inspections that praised VAIA’s upgraded terminal and existing MRO facilities, reinforcing the argument that the airport can deliver far greater value if its international status is matched with functional aviation services.
Obong Victor Attah’s intervention can be read as a cautionary warning, shaped by regional experience, that doing otherwise, the VAIA could suffer the same fate as the Margaret Ekpo International Airport (MEIA) in Calabar: an airport that carries the “international” label but lacks sustained international aviation functionality and economic depth.
- Akpandem James is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and member of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos.