Anyone privileged to have plied the Enugu highway bordering down the plain of Benue Valley would appreciate sufficiently the gravity of risks commuters are subjected to on the daily. Users of that route to Makurdi town of Benue State, entertain no doubt about the perilous betting such harbors especially for newbie drivers. The road we speak of is synonymous with mission across highlands of biblical golgotha, a place of sorrow, pain and archive for unclaimed skulls. The fairy tales given by users of highways connecting Enugu State to the rest of Nigeria demography are quite penetrative and above ordinary gaslighting of prevailing realities to make meat of appropriate quarters saddled with the responsibility to fix these parlours roads.
It may no longer make headline news how lives had been snuffed out of unlucky commuters stemming from inexperienced meandering of drivers from potholes large enough for a sunk well. Those who have dates with their Makers routinely cheat death yet lacking wholesomeness. These impassable roads are body pain instigators, any big wellhole galloped or circumnavigated has no less measure of thrusting shocks sent down the travellers’ spines. Gambolling a bump, there comes another terrible punch in the waist capable of dislodging joints that knit bones together.
It is a mission to nondescript and travelers have no iota of exit doors out of their probable eminent mishaps but to shovel down their lives in supplications to the supernatural.
Leveraging hugely on his intimate relationship with the Aviation Ministry and its top notch Administrators, Ugwuanyi carried his intervention on anything federal down to the runways, precisely, the once moribond Akanu Ibiam International Airport, lying in the innards of Emene communitty, Enugu State. Prior to Ugwuanyi capturing of Enugu State’s mandate, the said Airport was hanging on a life oxygen and heedlessly maintained its steady sail out of business without scintilla of remorse. All publicized efforts to pull the said establishment from the brink given unquantifiable sum gulped along the line met brick walls. By and large travelers checked sister buzzing and safety assured airports to transact their public and commercial interests. The old Akanu Ibiam International Airport fell grossly in serving the establishment needs of Southeast region of the country, as people where exposed to uncertainties associated with badly managed airport services.
Gov. Ugwuanyi seeing the whooping effects such tragedy holds for not only in the economy of the state but also historical relevance cum socio-political roles “Old” Enugu State played and continues to play in the existential question of Igbo man, briskly leveled the bureaucratic mantle and descended into the arena to redress putrid deficit.
In the recent outing to Akanu Ibiam International Airport, His. Excellency inaugurated road to the Very High Frequency Omni- Directional Radio Range/ Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency. The Air Officer Commanding, Ground Training Command Enugu, Air Vice Marshall Frank GoodNews Oparah, gleefully encapsulated the erstwhile travails of travelers. Hear him,” the all-important road was hitherto in a deplorable condition, impassable and hindered the security operation of the Air force officers at VOR navigation site until Ugwuanyi hinted enough” (emphasis mine)
I am indeed elated with the yet another administrative feather driven into among other feathers flanking the understanding governor’s cap, wishes to extend the tidings to all and sundry travelers that Akanu Ibiam International Airport is safe, sound and refreshing for use going forward. The airport management are, without controversy prepared to live out the name Akanu Ibiam.
Written by
Hon.Mrs. Bibian Anekwe
SSA to the Governor of Enugu State on Mobilization and Empowerment
Enugu Di N’akachukwu Movement ( DG)
