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Author: Rufuntse Jauro
Posted to the web: 4/10/2007 10:29:37 AM

I keep asking myself why the President hastily commissioned a project that is hardly complete since it is suppose to be turnkey project but apparently is not ready for use. The project is said to cost about $200 million quoting Dr. Wale Babalakin. In comparison, building the terminal cost half of what is cost to build the Tinapa premier business resort which was built on virgin land of a swampy terrain. Even though I have not visited Tinapa, I’ve frequently passed the Terminal II under construction and wonder it costs that much to build such as structure. The chairman of Bi-Courtney consortium blames the cost of the project on inflation but following CBN’s report, inflation has been at a minimum for the past 2 years. I also wonder if the funding of the project was in Nigerian naira or US dollars because the latter will stabilize the costs of construction. But if it was funded in naira by Oceanic bank and others, but will be repaid in dollars, then we must pull out figures from space to estimate the actual cost of the project; a situation not different from Nigeria’s debt repayment problem.

Be this as it may, I believe this is a public project and is subject to public scrutiny, therefore it will be appreciated if both the Tinapa and Airport terminal projects financial statements are made public. Whilst Tinapa has a website where you can marvel at the sites and wonders, Bi-Courtney/Stabilini Visinoni has no internet accessibility for a company doing project worth $200 million and even more. I also wonder if inflation helped increase the wages of the laborers working at the project site.

My opinion to the premature commissioning of the terminal is that the president is quickly rubber stamping a project yet to be audited, to tactically bind FAAN and Bi-Courtney to an agreement that can only be reversed in court before exiting the office in return for a favor on God and the people involved know. If Bi-Courtney generates revenue of N1 billion a year from this facility, then it would have generated N30 billion in 30 years time and then claim inflation has not helped them in making profit therefore extending the concession or even acquiring the structure completely. The private individuals in this deal certainly have nothing to loose but I wonder if the deal is fair on Nigeria just as several other deals brokered by Obasanjo’s administration in the recent past.

The Nigerian naira is one of the most despised currencies in the world as it is traded only in Nigeria, but I can assure you that it is one of the most lucrative to do business with. Recent experiences from telecommunication and downstream oil companies stand as a proof. Sincerely, I don’t know what the cause of this imbalance is and despise it as it has not improved the life of the common man like a laborer but done every good to a company like Stabilini Visiononi.

  It is impressive that private sector participation has improved recently by the likes of Dr. Wale Babalakin, but Nigerians must be wary of the result of such schemes. I am just asking that the simple spirit of transparency be represented in the bogus projects around the country