Keyamo defends N712bn Lagos airport project, says terminal is “decrepit and smelly”

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, has defended the federal government’s plan to remodel Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos with N712 billion, saying the aim is to meet global aviation standards.

Appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Keyamo described the existing terminal, built over 40 years ago, as outdated and deteriorating.

“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 project approval has drawn criticism amid high inflation, hunger, and economic hardship. But Keyamo clarified that the funding will not come from the national budget.

“It is not a budgetary kind of expenditure. It is from the special infrastructure fund,” he said, noting it will be financed through the Renewed Hope Infrastructural Funding and completed in 22 months.

He warned that without modernisation, international airlines could abandon Nigerian routes.

“Without this, some international airlines will threaten to stop flight to your country when you don’t have a good airport, a good runway… insurance will go up because they will say that place is not safe to fly to,” he said.

Keyamo said the goal is to transform Lagos into a competitive aviation hub.

“As it is today, you cannot land in Lagos (local airport) and try to connect to an international flight, maybe to Ghana,” he explained.

“What we are trying to do in Lagos now is to make Lagos a very modern airport and create a proper hub to begin to compete with other hubs in Africa. So, we want to completely pull down Terminal One.

“It is not a refurbishment; we are tearing it down, only the pillars will remain, the carcass, the decking. Everything will go, and they are going to redesign now,” he added.