By Baron Ike
Governors from the South East area of Nigeria under the umbrella of South East Governors Forum have written to President Muhammadu Buhari over the impromptu rehabilitation of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu as announced by government without giving the people time to adjust.
The governors have therefore proposed that the repair works start by October ending, to make for the security of the airport users, and for a seven-day repair work on the tarmac.
In a letter written August 19 and sent to Buhari and signed by Governor Dave Umahi, chairman of the South East Governors Forum, the governors thanked Buhari for giving approval for the rehabilitation of the airport, the ongoing construction work at the Second Niger bridge, the completion of the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum in Onitsha, the 2.8 megawatt solar plant at the Alex Ekwueme University, Ndufu, Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi state and other interventions in the South East.
However, the governors said they were constrained to ask the president to intervene in the notice for the repair work at the Enugu airport to minimize the hardship it would bring on the people and users of the roads and other airports where traffic would be diverted in the region during the period the rehabilitation work would last.
The governors said the prompt notice given on the repair work afforded them no time to make any arrangement for alternative means and routes within the area that the people and outsiders who have businesses to transact in the South East would rely on.
Among the requests they made were that Julius Berger be drafted for the interim one week repair of the tarmac and eventual rehabilitation work at the airport, that security be provided around the region during the period with the roads, that the transportation ministry in collaboration with the governors in the South East clear the bushes and carry out repair works on roads in the region to make for easy assess and movement, and that the president approves their earlier resolution banning movement of herdsmen in the region without cattle and movement of cattle on foot to eliminate increasing cases of kidnapping, raping of women, killing, maiming and other cases of insecurity associated with same.
Also, they requested that Buhari grants them the authority to publish the letter to assuage the feelings of the people that they were insensitive of the things that affect them.