Renowned industrialist in Rivers State and Managing Director of Sodibem Engineering Works, Port Harcourt, Engr. Solomon Diri, has bemoaned the level of decay of infrastructure at the nation’s airports.
Speaking with journalists recently at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa on arrival from an Engineering Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Diri urged the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to quickly overhaul infrastructural facilities at the airports to make them attractive to would-be investors into the Nigerians economy.
He specifically lamented the state of toilets, insufficient trolleys and the sizes of Port Harcourt International Airport, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, among others.
Diri pointed out that Nigerians have seen that there was inadequate number of trolleys at the arrival and departure axis of the airports.
He advised the authority to ensure that friendly flagrance was put to use in the toilets in order to ensure that visitors form good opinion about the country.
Diri, a RSU-trained mechanical Engineer said that Nigeria was in the process of becoming the aviation hub for sub-Sahara African region and other parts of Africa and therefore stressed the need to ensure best practices in terms of movement of goods and people, as well as provision of adequate infrastructure.
According to him, “the facilities for now at these airports are still not adequate. There is a lot of room for improvement of facilities”.
Diri noted that, “if we want to achieve the best goal and transformation agenda of President Mohammadu Buhari we need more injection of funds, government alone cannot do it. We believe that with the renewed interest from prospective foreign investors who are prepared to team up with the Federal Government to expand the facilities and make it cope with the increase number of flight envisage in the next four years”.
The industrialist said that government has to draw the attention of FAAN to some of the gaps in the services and believed that, within the shortest possible time, necesary amendments should be made.
He, however, expressed the hope that E-Passport equipment installed at the airport had made organisations to perform their civic duties effectively, noting that some passengers still present old MRP passport, which the service had stopped accepting.
Diri added that instruction on designated issuance of visa to genuine investors and tourists had not been communicated to them to commence the process as pronounced by the federal government.

Bethel Toby/Peace Ihedoro