When Concessions Become Colonization
At IgboFacts, we do not merely report — we interrogate power. We do not just amplify concerns — we present credible analysis and expert insight.
Following our initial investigative editorial on the rumored long-term concession of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, we return with a deeper economic examination. The silence from the Federal Government, even amid persistent reports of an 80-year concession proposal, demands that we press further.
Because when the state begins to lock away strategic Igbo infrastructure under the guise of concessions — for periods longer than the lifespan of any government or administration — it is no longer development. It is economic colonization.
Global Best Practices: Airport Concessions Are Never Forever
Globally, airport concessions are designed to balance investment recovery with public interest. Typical concession periods for international airports, even in high-traffic environments, range between 20 and 30 years, occasionally stretching to 40 years in highly capital-intensive scenarios.
Why? Because aviation is dynamic. Passenger patterns change. Technology evolves. Economic landscapes shift.
An 80-year lock-in period ignores this reality. It removes flexibility. It prevents renegotiation. It hands over control not just of an airport — but of a region’s economic gateway — for nearly a century.
The Enugu Reality: Low Traffic, High Questions
Enugu’s Akanu Ibiam International Airport is not a busy hub. It has only one international airline, Ethiopian Airlines, with limited operations. The airport does not currently support the kind of passenger or cargo volume that justifies a multi-decade concession.
So, what is being leveraged for 80 years? Where is the business logic? Where is the feasibility study? Who values this airport at a scale that makes such a tenure reasonable?
Without answers to these questions, any concession of this magnitude smells less like development and more like insider dealing and resource capture.
Concession or Confiscation? The Hidden Danger of Bad Deals
An 80-year lease on a regional airport is not a business partnership. It is an economic handover of sovereignty. And it raises fundamental questions: What happens if the concessionaire underperforms? Who retains the power to terminate or renegotiate?
Will Igbo contractors, ground service providers, and aviation professionals be locked out of economic participation for 80 years? Where is the clause for community benefit sharing or local equity participation?
In the absence of answers, we are left to assume the worst: another attempt to trade away Igbo assets without the consent of the Igbo people.
The Silence Is Dangerous
The Federal Ministry of Aviation has remained disturbingly vague. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), whose duty is to ensure fairness and transparency, has not published clear bid evaluations, selection criteria, or draft concession terms.
Why the silence? Why the secrecy?
If this process is as legitimate as officials claim, why have the people not been shown the numbers, the terms, the logic?
What IgboFacts Demands — As Experts, On Behalf of the People
As we have always done, IgboFacts will continue to ask the hard questions, backed by credible analysis and data. We demand:
- Immediate publication of the full concession plan and all proposals under consideration.
- Stakeholder consultations, including local governments, traditional institutions, business leaders, and Igbo civil society.
- A technical review of the feasibility studies and valuation reports for the Enugu Airport concession.
- Performance-based, limited-term concessions with strict accountability clauses — not a handover!
