Daniel Otera
A coalition of eight Nigerian civil society organisations has condemned the Federal Government’s decision to spend ₦712 billion on the reconstruction and modernisation of Terminal One at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. They describe the project as excessive, opaque, and disconnected from the country’s most urgent needs.
The project was announced by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who said it would be funded through the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund. According to the minister, the overhaul will involve a complete rebuild and expansion to meet international standards.
But the coalition says the scale and timing of the project erode public trust, particularly in the wake of the 2023 fuel subsidy removal, which triggered inflation and widespread hardship.
“These are not personal funds,” the coalition said in a press release obtained by The Journal. “They are public funds and must be spent prudently, transparently, and in line with the people’s real priorities.”
The signatory organisations include Socio-Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Development Awareness (CESDA) and Grassroots Centre for Rights & Civic Orientation (GRACO).
Others are Gee Foundation for Social Justice and Development, 21st Century Community Empowerment for Youth & Women Initiative (CEYWI), Nurturelife Initiative for Health & Empowerment as well as Civic Spaces Initiative (RILDEV)
The coalition pointed to new World Bank projections showing Nigeria’s poverty rate could rise by 3.6 percentage points by 2027, pushing up to 26 million more Nigerians into poverty within two years.
Already, the scale of deprivation is severe.
According to a recent World Bank brief, 75.5% of rural Nigerians now live below the poverty line, compared to 41.3% in urban areas widening the already stark urban-rural gap.
Projections show that by the end of 2024, over 129 million Nigerians more than half the population will be in poverty. That’s a sharp increase from 30.9% in 2018/19.
The Africa’s Pulse report adds a grim warning: poverty in Nigeria is expected to continue rising through 2027, even as other resource-rich but fragile countries show signs of improvement. Nigeria stands out for all the wrong reasons.
Meanwhile, ₦712 billion has been approved for one airport terminal. That figure is nearly equal to the entire 2025 agriculture budget (₦826.5 billion) and not far behind the health sector allocation (₦2.48 trillion) meant for over 200 million people.
To put it plainly, the terminal alone would consume over 86 percent of Nigeria’s agriculture budget for 2025.
“This mismatch in priorities is disturbing,” the coalition stated. “The government must shift focus from high-cost prestige projects to human development.”
Critics also question why the Lagos terminal needs another rebuild. A major international terminal project was completed there in March 2022 under President Muhammadu Buhari. The ₦106 billion project, largely funded by a loan from China’s Exim Bank, delivered 66 check-in counters, advanced screening facilities, and other “world-class” amenities.
Now, less than three years later, another ₦712 billion has been approved for the same airport.
The coalition says there’s been no transparent process, no debate in the National Assembly, and no clear public interest rationale for the project.
“This is public money. Yet the Executive proceeded without any known deliberation at the National Assembly. This undermines accountability and public trust.”
Despite repeated calls, the government has not published how much has been saved since the fuel subsidy was removed in 2023 revenue that should now be directed at tackling inflation, food insecurity, and collapsing public services.
“We urge the Tinubu administration to publicly declare all savings from subsidy removal and redirect them to projects that genuinely benefit the poor,” the coalition said.
Only weeks earlier, President Tinubu had urged state governors to focus on poverty reduction, education, and healthcare. Civil society leaders say the Federal Government isn’t following its own advice.
“A government that truly values fiscal discipline would invest such funds in healthcare, education, food security, and agriculture not vanity projects.”
The 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, published by the UNDP and Oxford’s OPHI, places Nigeria among the world’s worst-affected countries. It assesses poverty not just by income but also by access to healthcare, education, and clean living conditions.
A separate report from Nigeria’s own National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) found that 133 million Nigerians 63 percent of the population are multidimensionally poor.
Three out of four rural residents lack access to basic services.
“These numbers expose a deep contradiction,” the coalition said. “While millions face overlapping deprivations, public funds are going into elite infrastructure projects that do not meet basic human needs.”
The civil society organisations are calling for the following: Immediate reallocation of the ₦712 billion to rural roads, education, health, agriculture, and social protection; Full disclosure of savings from subsidy removal since 2023, and a published plan on how those funds are being used; Stronger National Assembly oversight to prevent further unapproved megaprojects.
“Let’s prioritise the well-being of our citizens over grandiose projects,” the coalition concluded. “Together, we must demand transparency, accountability, and governance that works for the people.”
Read the full statement below:
JOINT PRESS STATEMENT
Abuja | August 7, 2025
Civil Society Coalition: FG’s N712b Airport Reconstruction Excessive, Circumvents Pressing Priorities and Due Process
We, the undersigned Coalition of Civil Society Organizations have closely followed the conversation on the Federal Government’s allocation of N712billion for what has been described as the reconstruction, rehabilitation and modernization of Terminal One of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. This Coalition paid close attention to the briefing by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, wherein he announced that the project will be executed with funds from the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund. The Minister also disclosed that the project involves the rehabilitation, upgrade and modernization of the International Airport Terminal One. While this Coalition is not against the provision of world class infrastructure to drive Nigeria’s economic growth and prosperity, there are important value for money, transparency and accountability issues, which the Federal Government cannot afford to gloss over.
We make bold to state that the monies being expended for the project are not personal finances of government officials, but public funds, which should be used, prudently, transparently, and in line with the most pressing priorities of the Nigerian people. This Coalition is concerned that the quantum of funds being devoted to the project, coming on the heels of a recent upgrade of five airports, across the country by the immediate past administration, is excessive, circumvents due process, and can hardly be justified in the context of daily economic struggles of the vast majority of ordinary Nigerian. For us therefore, the key question is not whether Nigeria needs modernized airports or not. The fundamental question is: in the face of millions of poor, starving, and insecure citizens, does this project stand the priority test?
One of the core mandates of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund is to enhance the agricultural value chain to boost food security. How does the 712b project fundamentally enhance our country’s agricultural output and its value chain to make it a pressing priority of the moment. We therefore join other well-meaning patriotic Nigerians in expressing legitimate concerns and outrage over such a huge expenditure on an airport project at a time millions of our fellow citizens are languishing in poverty and economic deprivations occasioned by the government’s harsh, haphazard and draconian policies. Given the background of the economic agonies and pains Nigerians are facing, the approval of this expenditure questions the government’s avowed commitment to channel public resources towards realizing the best objectives for the majority of citizens. It clearly amounts to expending scarce national resources on projects that can be on the queue, behind our other
pressing national priorities. With the recent projections by the World Bank that poverty in Nigeria will increase by 3.6 percentage points over the next five years through 2027, our country requires more pro-people priorities, which will give a helping hand to fellow struggling citizens. Consequently, comparing this airport reconstruction to some critical sectors shows evidence that there is clearly a mismatch of priorities. In the 2025 budget, healthcare for over 200million Nigerians got the sum of 1.91 trillion, while agriculture received a proposed budget of 826.5billion. That the cost of just one airport reconstruction comes close to the annual budgets for key sectors, which should serve the welfare of Nigerians, speaks to the misplacement of national priorities.
Similarly, for the Federal Government that was recently admonishing state governors to place priority on healthcare, education and poverty reduction, it is clear that federal authorities are not practicing what they preach. The deployment of scarce public funds for the execution of vainglorious white elephant projects is part of the unending assault on the sensibilities of long-suffering Nigerians. A government, which prioritizes fiscal discipline and prudent management of public funds will channel such a massive amount into key impact areas like healthcare, education, agriculture and poverty reduction.
Within the context of value for money and most pressing priorities, this particular approval woefully fails the tests. This Coalition can boldly assert that the N712billion, if transparently and strategically utilized can help pull out a good number of the 75 percent of Nigerians in the rural areas, which the World Bank in May, 2025 stated, live below the poverty line. There can therefore be no mistaking the fact that this decision by the Federal Government is at variance, and crushingly contradicts the government’s posturing that it removed fuel subsidy in order to curb waste and fraud. The fundamental question to pose is: what is more deceptive than plunging Nigerians into economic woes through total subsidy removal without adequate safety nets, only to deploy the funds realized to opaque, vain and corruption-prone projects, which would have no real or lasting impact on the lives of citizens?
This Coalition is therefore of the considered view that the extravagant spending should be immediately reviewed and shelved. In the context of transparency, accountability and due process, it is also curious that the Executive arm proceeded with this approval without any known deliberation whatsoever at the National Assembly. Consequently, we need to remind the Federal Government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that Nigerians across the states continue to live with the realities of infrastructural and social services decay. This decay manifests in such areas as poor federal roads networks, inadequate healthcare facilities, and unreliable power supply. If the idea is to invest in infrastructure, these grassroots needs, which will boost areas like agriculture, electricity supply, taking out of school children off the streets and enhance the agriculture value-chain are the ones that should be addressed first, not elitist airport reconstruction. For the sake of transparency and accountability, this administration is also duty bound to officially declare in clear and unambiguous terms the total savings, which have accrued from the removal of fuel subsidy.
Our Demands: This Coalition therefore demands as follows:
- Reallocation of N712b: Redirect the proposed N712 billion towards more urgent and critical grassroots infrastructure projects, in such areas as rural feeder roads, cottage industries, healthcare, education and poverty reduction.
- Declaration of Subsidy Savings: We urge the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government to immediately declare the actual savings made from fuel subsidy removal and allocate them towards impactful projects benefiting the majority of impoverished Nigerians.
Our Demands: This Coalition therefore demands as follows:
We urge Nigerians to join us in rejecting this wasteful spending and demanding accountability from our leaders. Let’s prioritize the well-being of our citizens over grandiose projects. Together, we can demand transparency, accountable and responsive governance.
Signed
- Socio Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC)
- Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)
- Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Development Awareness (CESDA)
- Grassroots Center for Rights & Civic Orientation (GRACO)
- Gee Foundation for Social Justice and Development
- 21st Century Community Empowerment for Youth & Women Initiative (CEYWI)
- Nurturelife Initiative for Health & Empowerment
- Civic Spaces Initiative (aka RILDEV)