LESS than a month after former President Buhari reportedly renamed 15 federal airports after some prominent Nigerians, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has performed exactly the same function.
Several media reports, including online, electronic and print, published shortly before the inauguration of the Tinubu Presidency on May 29, 2023, quoted a statement by a Ministry of Aviation spokesperson, Odutayo Oluseyi, conveying the then President Buhari’s approval renaming 15 federal airports.
Mr Oluseyi, in the statement revealed that Buhari gave the approval for the renaming of the airports on Friday, May 26, 2023.
The airports, The Guardian quoted the statement as saying, include Maiduguri International Airport to be known was Muhammadu Buhari; Port Harcourt International Airport renamed Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo; Ilorin International Airport to now be known as General Tunde Abdullahi Idiagbon; Ibadan International Airport renamed after Samuel Ladoke Akintola; Akure International Airport named after Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu.
The news of the approval of the renaming of the airports by the ex-president was also reported by Daily Trust, Premium Times and Tribune, amongst others newspapers.
Others are Benin International Airport now known as Oba Akenzua II; Dutse International Airport renamed Muhammed Nuhu Sanusi; Ebonyi International Airport, now known as Chuba William Okadigbo; and Gombe International Airport renamed Brigadier Zakari Maimalari. Kaduna International Airport has also been renamed General Hassan Usman Katsina.
Others are Makurdi International Airport renamed after Joseph Sarwuan Tarka; Minna International Airport renamed Mallam Abubakar Imam; Nasarawa International Airport named after Sheikh Usman Danfodio; Osubi International Airport renamed Alfred Diete Spiff; and Yola International Airport now known as Lamido Aliyu Mustapha Airport.
Tinubu’s Approval
The news of President Tinubu’s approval however resurfaced on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, listing the same airports, although the news this time was said to have been announced in a memo released by the Federal Ministry of Aviation dated June 1, 2023, and signed by Mrs Joke Olatunji for the Director of Airport Operations on Monday.
According to this statement, President Tinubu renamed the airports “as part of reforms of the Aviation sector.”
Like the news of the approval by Buhari, several newspapers also published the approval by President Tinubu, including Punch, The Cable, Vanguard, Blueprint among others.
