President Buhari approves repairs, reconstruction of Abuja airport runway

 Fourteen years after the Abuja Airport Runway was due for reconstruction, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the interim repair of the runway and a major reconstruction of it. The Minister of State for Aviation, Alhaji Hadi Sirika at a press briefing after an inspection tour of the runway, told Journalists that the federal government cannot continue to fund the nation’s airports including the Abuja airport except to adopt for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for the country’s airports. He said that there had not been any major repair on the runway since it was constructed in 1982 which ordinarily was to last for only 20 years, adding that since the 20 years elapsed in 2002, nor serious repairs had been carried out. Sirika said that the approval would follow due process which might take a while but stated that a Transaction Adviser would be engaged to undertake the entire process from bidding to contracting the reconstruction of the runway. He assured that federal government would still go ahead with the concession of the airports including Abuja’s. Details shortly...