PORT HARCOURT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: THE COMMISSIONING OF THE VESTIGES, THE RELICS AND THE LEGACIES OF A REFORMER.

Mr President yesterday October 25^th, went to commission the new ultra modern Port Harcourt International Airport Terminal. This terminal is among the airports that the greatest aviation sector reformer of our time Senator Stella Oduah commenced in her 3 years of steering the leadership of the aviation sector until 2014.

Distinguished senator Stella Oduah when she ascended to the leadership of Aviation Sector marked 22 airports for remodeling to bring them to par with modern standard of airports across the globe. She designed a road map designed to uplift the infrastructural, technical and operational standard of our airports to attract FDI into that sector and also boost private sector participation.

Many of the airports like Kano Airport, Benin Airport, Lagos Airport, Abuja airport et al, all had their infrastructures uplifted rapidly within the first phase of adherence to the sector road map designed to revolutionalise that sector and make it attractive to travellers vis a vis private sector investors.

After the first phase was accomplished, the second phase started in earnest. The second phase earmarked our major airports for upliftment to international standard through construction of modern terminal building in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Enugu International airports.

This phase was supposed to be completed in 2015/2016 except for the change of government in 2015. But the works though delayed, continued due to the partnership Nigerian Government had with the Chinese Government that was financing the projects, making it impossible for any Govt to wake up and annul the contract or turn it to another white elephant project  as we have seen in the past. It was the ingenuity and ability to forsee the future on the side of Distinguished senator Stella Oduah that guided her decision to sign the agreement that will outlive any Govt to make sure her name remains indelible in the history of that sector through the completion of the remodeling which has finally materialised through the commencement of the commissioning by Mr President.

Rewind backwards to the standard of the sector before her 3 years stint in that sector as Minister. The sector was nothing to write home about. There was so much fear and trepidation that any journey on our local flights was regarded as journey to hell which you may or may not survive. Statistics showed that a large number of Nigerians preferred to use the roads though in poor condition also to using flight which requires you saying your last prayers. This emergency situation in that sector meant that flight then was just for a very few number of Nigerians who had the courage to take the risk as they probably had no choice but to take the risky journey with faith.

The airport terminals were just mere shanties stinking like village two halls with no infrastructure. The standard of operation was nothing to write home about as many air mishaps took place hitherto before her ascendance to the leadership of the sector, with many lives lost.

Investors were not ready to stick their money into a sector that looked like it was not going to harness its great potentials in a country where population is rapidly burgeoning geometrically and the roads are not even in good condition with people groaning with fear and frustration each time they are compelled to travel to a journey that could take 6 or more hours by road.

Dont forget that many other Aviation ministers had come and gone before her with trillions of Naira appropriated into that sector but there was nothing to show for such heavy budget allocations except abandoned projects in some few cases.

She was ready to embrace that challenge as reformer without been cowed by the interest of status quo that had held the sector aground for decades just for their own self serving interest to the detriment of 170 plus million Nigerians.

She rolled her sleeves to bring our airport up to the standard as it is practised in civilized countries that cannot actually cannot boast of the amount of revenue we earn daily as a nation.

Today, her legacies symbolize a paradigm shift in that sector. The airports are breeding with new life, new infrastructures and steady growth of patronage and attraction of business from private sector and FDI.

The edifices she built in Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Enugu are a direct paradigm shift from a dilapidated sector she inherited to a sector that has the great potentials to rake in billions of Naira for our economy while also creating many jobs for our unemployed youths.

Distinguished Senator Stella Oduah is a reformer who left aviation sector with watershed performance that is unprecedented in the history of that sector if not our nation  at large. No single minister in the history of Nigeria has been able to undertake the number of projects she undertook to rewrite the history of her ministry even when she spent barely three years in that sector. It shows you that when you engage a leader who understands his onions, time constraint will not be an excuse to unleash his or her plan and ensure its implementation at least for the period he or she occupies that position of leadership.

One thing about Distinguished Senator Stella Oduah, is that she is a silent performer. She does not walk up to the roof top with media following her every day just to create publicity for her achievements. She rather believes in doing the work silently and allow the people evaluate her performance and that of her predecessors.

This is the same pattern she has continued to adopt even as a senator today representing the good people of Anambra North. A visit to the communities under her will reveal her watershed  performance in road construction, solar light installation, pipe born water, education, empowerment programs for the youths and women et al. All these she has achieved within just less than 4 years she has saddled the leadership of the constituency. But as I speak to you, she barely talks much about her achievements neither does she pay the media everyday to be showcasing these programs and projects on TV to attract applause from the people. That is leadership.

Senator Stella Oduah impact in aviation sector will outlive her and the history of that sector will not be complete without her golden name mentioned for years to come. She is simply the one that revolutionized that sector as we have it today.

Today many Nigerians are excited to fly without any form of anxiety and they enjoy the infrastructures in all the airports across the zones as built be her without segregation.

Distinguished Senator Stella Oduah is a reformer anywhere she goes and our nation will be blessed to have someone like her saddle the leadership of this nation or even a state someday. Our country or the state as the case may be will be the end beneficiaries from her knowledge, expertise, infatuation with excellency performance for the interest of the grassroots and our country at large.

Finally I congratulate Mr President for commissioning the Port Harcourt Airport as we also await same for Enugu Airports and others soon.

Long Live Senator Stella Oduah!

Long Live Anambra North!

Long Live Nigeria!