The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has sharply criticized the Bola Tinubu-led administration over its plan to spend more than ₦712 billion on renovating the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, calling the move a “misplaced priority.”
In a statement issued on Sunday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, described the expenditure as extravagant and insensitive.
The criticism follows President Tinubu’s approval of the ₦712.3 billion for the airport upgrade at Thursday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, to be funded under the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund. The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo, had noted that this would be the first major rehabilitation of the airport’s old terminal since its construction.
In its reaction, the ADC questioned whether the project and its massive cost were approved by the National Assembly, labeling the spending as both “reckless and insensitive.”
The party’s statement read, “The African Democratic Congress strongly condemns the outrageous ₦712 billion airport renovation project announced by the Tinubu administration as another brazen act of fiscal recklessness and official insensitivity, which further confirms how far this APC government is removed from the reality of the suffering people of Nigeria.”
The ADC expressed its disbelief at the rationale behind the project. “It is hard to understand how expending ₦712 billion into renovating an airport that already received significant upgrades in recent years makes fiscal sense in a country where public universities wallow in chronic austerity, where basic medical care, has become a luxury that only the rich can afford, where millions of Nigerians have been thrown into poverty as a result of government’s ill-conceived policies. The Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos remains functional and serviceable.”
The party argued that the aviation sector’s needs lie elsewhere, pointing out the disproportionate cost of the project. “What the aviation sector needs is not another gold-plated terminal, but proper maintenance, enhanced efficiency and the expansion of regional airports to boost real connectivity across Nigeria. Just for context, the amount of money that is being funnelled into the renovation of one airport, approximately $500 million, is the same total amount that was spent to build four new airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt in 2014 via a Chinese loan that is yet to be repaid.”
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The ADC also referenced a recent upgrade to the same airport, stating, “This same Murtala Muhammed Airport had a new international terminal that was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2022. According to media reports at the time, the said facility was built on a landmass of approximately 56,000 square metres, with 66 check-in counters and had the capacity to process 14 million passengers annually.”
The party noted that this new terminal was reportedly fitted with numerous modern features, including a “censored conveyor belt, seven jet bridges, ten advanced cooling systems, heat extraction units in the baggage hall, spacious duty-free areas and banks, children’s recreational zones, and a 22-room hotel for stopovers, among other features.”
The ADC further stressed that while the facility was built to handle 14 million passengers annually, “available data shows it only processed 6.5 million passengers in 2024, less than half of its capacity.”
This led the party to question the government’s motives. “We therefore wonder if it is this same airport that is now scheduled for renovation or another one. The inescapable conclusion is either that the previous APC government had lied to Nigerians about what it did with the Lagos Airport, or the current government is about to spend such a huge amount of money on a project that already exists.”
The party also raised constitutional and legal questions about the funding. “Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that this massive expenditure—approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on July 31, 2025—has not received any backing from the National Assembly, and it is not in any of the approved budgets. Is this now how the government spends close to a trillion naira—without appropriation, without scrutiny, and without the consent of the Nigerian people through their elected representatives?”
The ADC demanded clarity, asking: “We demand to know: under what constitutional provision is this money being spent? How did we get here, that the government of Nigeria, even in the face of extant accountability laws, is able to approve expenditure of this magnitude with no public breakdown of costs, no transparent procurement process, and no national debate?”
The party concluded by proposing alternative uses for the funds. “Let us be clear, ₦712 billion could instead deliver transformative impact by building over seven fully equipped teaching hospitals, funding free basic education across three geopolitical zones for five years, providing rural electrification to thousands of communities, or rehabilitating thousands of kilometres of federal roads and bridges.”
The ADC called for a public rejection of the project, stating, “The ADC calls on all Nigerians to reject this frivolous project. We therefore demand its immediate suspension, a full independent audit of the proposed budget, and a redirection of funds toward projects that would directly improve the lives of ordinary citizens, which should be the priority of any government.”
The party warned that such “reckless spending amid hunger, hardship, and insecurity” would only serve to “widen the trust gap between the government and the people, especially when it struggles to justify its borrowing.”
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