The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a ₦100.5 billion promissory note programme to reimburse the Yobe State Government for building the Muhammadu Buhari International Cargo Airport in Damaturu, which the Federal Government has taken over. The exact sum, ₦100,509,017,234.55, was recommended by the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management after what its chairman, Abubakar Hassan Nalaraba, described as due diligence and a physical inspection of the facility. The approval moves the refund closer to payment, but it also brings fresh attention to the cost of the project and the commercial prospects of state-built airports.
President Bola Tinubu sent the request to both chambers of the National Assembly on October 13, 2026. In his letter, he said the Federal Executive Council approved the takeover and reimbursement at its second extraordinary meeting on May 23, 2023, six days before former President Muhammadu Buhari left office. He added that the Bureau of Public Procurement later reviewed the project and recommended the sum, which is being handled as the 70th promissory note programme under the Debt Management Office (Establishment) Act, 2003 and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
Nalaraba told journalists in Abuja that the committee examined contract agreements, completion certificates, evidence of payments to contractors and the bureau’s certificate of no objection. He said the Federal Ministry of Aviation confirmed the quality of work met the standard required for a federal takeover. “This is reimbursement. This money has been spent,” he said, stressing that the payment was not fresh funding for construction.
The project dates back to 2017, when the administration of former Governor Ibrahim Gaidam approved it. In May 2021, Yobe’s Commissioner for Transportation and Energy, Abdullahi Kukuwa, said the state had spent over ₦18 billion on the airport between 2017 and 2021, explaining that the contract was first awarded at ₦11 billion before variations pushed it up. Buhari inaugurated the airport in January 2023, and in March that year Governor Mai Mala Buni announced that the Federal Government had taken it over at the state’s request.
The approved refund is about 5.6 times the ₦18 billion the state disclosed in 2021. No breakdown reconciling the two figures was presented at Wednesday’s briefing, and the committee said detailed repayment arrangements were yet to be fully explained. It did, however, describe the reimbursement as a one-off payment, adding that responsibility for maintaining and developing the airport now rests with federal authorities.
That responsibility comes with a known financial burden. In 2024, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Olubunmi Kuku, said only three of the 22 airports the agency owns and manages were profitable, with the other 19 kept running through cross-subsidy. She urged states to focus on trade, manufacturing and tourism rather than new airports, arguing that economic activity, not construction, drives traffic. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo later said that, judged on all indices of viability, Lagos was probably the only truly viable airport in the country.
Asked about these concerns at the briefing, Nalaraba said lawmakers were not technical specialists and had relied on assessments from the aviation authorities. He said FAAN’s technical team was satisfied the airport was viable and ready for commercial use. He added that the state had built the facility even though aviation sits on the Exclusive Legislative List, which places it under federal control.
Supporters of the project are banking on agriculture to make it pay. Mohammed Jajere, a committee member from Yobe, described the state as agrarian and rich in raw materials, and said the airport could serve as a cargo hub for the North-East, moving produce to markets beyond the region. When the airport was commissioned, the state government had pointed to meat, dairy products and gum arabic as likely exports.
This is not Yobe’s first claim against the Federal Government. In November 2022, the Senate approved ₦18.66 billion for five federal roads the state had built or rehabilitated, below the ₦20.94 billion it requested, after a review by its Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. That record shows that the upper chamber has trimmed state claims in the past.
The same Senate committee now holds the airport request, having been given four weeks to appraise it. Once both chambers approve, the Debt Management Office can issue the note and settle the liability. The airport will then join the federal network under FAAN, which will carry the task of turning a ₦100.5 billion asset into a working cargo hub.