At a time of monumental economic squeeze, such as Nigeria is currently experiencing, many wrong choices and misplaced priorities embraced by state governors when the economy was booming are bouncing back to haunt them. One of these is the indiscriminate building of airports across the country, which ignored the basic needs of the citizens.
 
Of the 25 airports managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, experts say only the two in Lagos and Abuja are viable. While many may disagree with this claim, statistics of passengers that pass through these airports easily confirm that it is not far from the truth. For instance, in 2013, 7,261,178 passengers passed through the international and domestic wings of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, while 3,945,897 passengers patronised Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja. Next were Port Harcourt Airport (1,220,306 passengers), Aminu Kano Airport (327, 267 passengers) and Imo Airport (267,532 passengers), according to data quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. While many of the airports were envisaged as status symbols, others came up merely to facilitate the airlift of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

Read more at The Punch