Airport: Tinubu writes Senate, seeks approval to reimburse N100bn to Yobe govt

President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to approve the reimbursement of N100.5 billion to Yobe State Government for the construction of the Muhammadu Buhari International Cargo Airport in Damaturu, the state capital.

Mr Tinubu’s request was contained in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary on Tuesday.

In the letter, the president said the federal government had taken over the ownership and control of the airport, necessitating the reimbursement to the state government through a promissory note.

He said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the takeover, following which the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) reviewed the project and recommended N100,509,017,234.55 as the amount to be reimbursed to the state government.

After reading the letter, Mr Akpabio referred the request to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts for further scrutiny.

The proposed reimbursement comes against the backdrop of the constitutional provisions governing aviation in Nigeria.

Item 3 of Part I of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, as amended, places aviation, including airports, aircraft safety and the carriage of passengers and goods by air, on the Exclusive Legislative List. This means the National Assembly has exclusive authority to make laws on these matters, to the exclusion of state Houses of Assembly, subject to the provisions of the Constitution.

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Section 4(2) and (3) of the Constitution empower the National Assembly to legislate on matters on the Exclusive Legislative List. The constitutional arrangement provides the basis for federal regulation of aviation and the administration of airports under relevant federal laws.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Act also empowers the authority to maintain and manage airports transferred to it under the law, as well as other airports provided for under the relevant legislation.

However, the placement of aviation on the Exclusive Legislative List does not, by itself, establish that every airport must be owned by the federal government or automatically entitle a state that constructs an airport to reimbursement.