By Tanko Lami
ABUJA, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-Uncertainty continues to trail the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as questions persist over whether the project will eventually be realised.
Debate around the runway intensified in 2025 when its projected cost climbed to N532bn.
Doubts about the Federal Government’s commitment were further heightened after the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, headed by Festus Keyamo, earmarked only N10m for the project in the 2026 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.
The second runway was initially announced in April 2009 with an estimated cost of N64bn under the then Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba.
The plan was for a 4.5-kilometre runway designed to handle the world’s largest commercial aircraft, including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777.
It was also projected to be 75 metres wide and fitted with Category III airfield lighting.
Several years later, during the tenure of former Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, the N64bn contract was eventually awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. By 2023, the projected cost of the project had increased to N90bn.
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In 2024, the estimated cost surged further after Keyamo disclosed that CCECC had proposed raising the contract sum to N532bn, attributing the increase to inflation and foreign exchange fluctuations.
Keyamo rejected the proposal, which would have added N442bn to the contract, describing it as excessive.
Addressing concerns over the budgetary provision on Monday, Keyamo said allocations in the 2026 budget do not necessarily represent the true cost of projects.
He explained that nominal sums are often inserted for major projects to keep them within the budget cycle while alternative funding options are explored.
He said, “I have not looked at it, but what they do in the budgetary sequence is that even if a project is N40bn, I’m not saying it is N40bn, I am just giving an example, and we don’t have the money to do it yet. To keep that budget alive for that cycle, we just allocate an amount to it. It doesn’t mean that the money you see there is a reflection of the actual cost. The civil servants do it that way.”
Keyamo added that he and President Tinubu had agreed to seek alternative sources of funding outside the regular budget framework to execute the runway project.
“The Federal Government has resolved on an alternative source of income, and we have gone very far with that. We will reveal it very soon. We will do the second runway; we will deliver it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Tunde Moshood, declined further comments, noting that the budget preparation process is handled by civil servants and the permanent secretary.