Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has disclosed the choice of building an international airport in the state among other reasons was to attract foreign investors to the state.
Speaking with newsmen in Gusau yesterday, the governor said no right-thinking investor would come to a state driving several hours by road in the absence of an airport.
Responding to the choice of airport while fielding questions from journalists, the governor said, “We realised that no matter how fast we want to move, no matter how you want to bring investors, no right-thinking investor will come to Nigeria, land in Abuja or Kano and drive seven hours to come and invest his money with all the negative security reports.
“Insecurity has been a major concern, so no meaningful investor will take his money and come and invest in Zamfara, considering the fact that he has to travel for more than seven hours to get to this place. We realised that we need to open up the state, and the only way is to make transportation easier, where anybody can fly in,” he said.
He said initially, it was meant to be just a cargo airport, but it was later realized that there was need to go beyond that.
“We said let it be a combination of both cargo, as well as passenger airport. We have the domestic terminal and we have the international terminal and by any standard, I’m sure if you come to Zamfara in the next five months you will see a different thing all together.
“The economic benefits cannot be overemphasised because we need to open up the state. And that’s the only way you can bring meaningful investors. And not only that, right now, anytime I’m going to Abuja, I spend the whole day traveling when I can easily fly to Abuja, attend the meeting and come back to be with my people.
“We take time, two days. I would spend one day, the whole day traveling to Abuja, when I finish it takes me another one day to come back to Zamfara. So, honesty, it’s a must if really we are serious and want to tap from the potential the state has at the moment. Otherwise, only very few people will stop by to come and see what we are doing when we have their money.
“Apart from opening up the state, it provides employment because at the airport, you have to employ people to work. Revenue generation is also something. Zamfara is an agrarian economy. By the time you go into agreement with the Qataris, Saudis in terms of some of these.. farming, believe me it is just a matter of time.
“We are able to get it right, you will see the number of cargos that are taking off from Zamfara. There was a time the Saudis wanted to build an airport because there was a kind of short grass they needed and they found it here in Zamfara and so they were ready even then to do the airport.
“It will be an easy task for them to evacuate the grass to Saudi. So we are exploring all those potentials and opportunities. Without the airport, you cannot think of that. So it is important. In the entire county, it is only Zamfara that has no airport,” he stressed.