Address delivered by the Executive Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, at the flag-off of the Agricultural Cargo Airport held at Km. 12 Sagamu-Benin Expressway, Ogun State, on Tuesday, 31st May, 2005.
A GIANT STEP TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
At the first Ogun State Economic and Investment Summit held in November 2003, I declared that our State was on its way to becoming the investment destination of choice not only in Nigeria but also on the West Coast of Africa. At that time, our Administration was barely six months old and that assertion might have sounded to some as boastful or even utopian. To us, however, it served, and still serves, as a statement of aspiration, a self-challenge that continues to energise us to dream big and to follow our dream until it becomes a reality.
Today, we have cause to give thanks to Almighty God for the way Ogun State has been making progress towards the full realisation of our set goals. Today, halfway into our tenure as an Administration, we can point to several tangible results of our efforts. The Ogun Agro Cargo Airport that we are flagging off today is one of the key items on our agenda for investment promotion that would squarely place our dear Gateway State on the commercial, industrial and developmental map of the modern world. With this project and several others that have sprung up in the last two years, we are making a clear statement that our State is now ready to redefine itself along the lines of global benchmarks as a viable emerging market. This is indeed an epoch-making event in the life of our State, and I daresay that after this, things will never be the same again.
This Agro Cargo Airport is positioned to serve as a conveyor belt for a huge chunk of Nigeria’s import and export trade, especially agricultural products, horticulture, perishable food items and fresh vegetables, as well as industrial raw materials, machinery, and consumer goods. The project is deliberately situated at a strategic location, at a key intersection of the Lagos-Ibadan and Sagamu-Benin Expressways, which are perhaps the two most critical arteries linking Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, to the rest of the country and which also provide a corridor to the West Coast.
The Agro Cargo Airport is conceived as a commercially viable private sector-driven project. As part of its initial viability projections, it will serve as a hub for developing a new industrial town while providing opportunities for developing an air cargo terminal, aircraft maintenance facilities, warehousing services and cargo depot as well as an agricultural cargo depot. The strength of the project lies in the copious advantages that it offers, including proximity and accessibility to major commercial centres such as Abeokuta, Lagos, Ibadan, and Ijebu Ode, all of which are within 30 minutes by road to the airport as well as Benin City, the Nigeria-Benin border and the vast northern and eastern markets of Nigeria.
The benefits of this project are truly limitless. Aside from its potential to launch Ogun State as an important cargo destination and embarkation point, it will also help to ease traffic in and out of Lagos and reduce the rate of road deterioration due to overuse. It will help to curb the port congestion in Lagos, occasioned by the high volume of haulage traffic by providing an alternative outlet. In addition, the project will improve communication networks, increase inward investment and international interest in Ogun State and Nigeria and generally serve as a stimulus for development.
That is not all. Our cargo airport seeks to ameliorate the constraint on space at Murtala International Airport while also responding to strong demands for cold storage facilities by importers and exporters.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today’s flag-off ceremony is to formally announce the jump-starting of the project by the Ogun State Government with the commencement of work on an Industrial Air Park that will, over time, evolve into the Cargo Airport. The industrial park will have airstrip facilities for light to medium cargo and commercial air traffic, as well as helicopter shuttle/taxi services; aircraft maintenance and hangar facilities; pilot and airline services training school; flying club; and a theme park, amongst others.
We also envisage Federal Government designation of the facility as a Customs-bonded warehousing and clearance centre for the oil sector, with petroleum products depots and tank farms, and an NNPC mega station. It will serve as a hub for parcel and light mail sorting and delivery services and I am happy to inform you that we have already started receiving expressions of interest from key players in this regard. The project will offer ancillary incentives for residential and industrial development, a trailer park, a travellers’ inn and resort facilities, and terminus facilities to service the Lagos-Ogun-Oyo Light Rail Project.
What we are doing here today is to use the best resources to get the best results and to put the most appropriate structure in place within the quickest possible time frame. This is to indicate our seriousness and commitment to the project. The Cargo Airport project is being jump-started by the State Government with the firm belief that the private sector will rise to the opportunities that it offers and collaborate with us in concretely actualising the dream.
Following this flag-off, you will, in the next eighteen months, witness fast-paced development of this area as we seek to create a major hub for business transactions. This project will have positive linkages with the Free Trade Zone, jointly owned by Ogun and Ondo States, as well as the nation’s biggest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project being developed in the Ogun Waterside area. The linkages that this project presents for the overall development of our State and our nation are truly stupendous.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me use this opportunity to reiterate that the agro cargo airport is being established purely for the purposes of socio-economic development and investment promotion. It is not a politically-induced project and should therefore not be the object or subject of unhealthy politicking. Its location is informed mainly by rational technical specifications that are applicable worldwide for projects of this nature. If the project is close to any community at all, this should be regarded as an accident of geography. As a result, the project does not belong to any section of the State or community and nobody should seek to lay proprietary claim to an initiative that belongs to the investors.
I wish to assure all communities and interest groups in the State that we shall continue to ensure fairness, equity and justice in the distribution of development projects and the dividends of democracy. This Administration has never, and will never, wilfully marginalise any section or community in the State. Since inception, we have been at the forefront of correcting real and perceived imbalances that are deeply rooted in the history and evolution of our State, whether in terms of appointments, patronage or distribution of infrastructure and amenities. No part of the State is not benefiting from the OGROMA magic; OGEGEP’s beneficial impact, OGRUMED’s compassionate care; or OGSEP’s luminous attention. The entire State is our constituency and there is no favourite group or section.
Our commitment is total towards changing the face and fortunes of Ogun State into an industrial and commercial hub, a land of happy people and thriving businesses that truly lives up to its name as the Gateway State. This project is one of our key interventions towards expanding the economic base of the State and transforming the lives of our people.
At this point, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I call on you to join us as we flag off this great project and work towards its speedy and wholesome actualisation to the Glory of God and the benefit of our State.
I thank you for listening.
