Obi berates FG over ₦712bn airport renovation budget as 34m Nigerians face acute hunger

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, berated the federal government over N712 billion budget for the renovation of an airport while over 34 million Nigerians were identified by the United Nations (UN) to face acute hunger.

Obi argued: “It is profoundly troubling that at a time when millions of Nigerians are facing the crushing burden of hunger, the Federal Government has chosen to approve a staggering ₦712.3 billion—not to feed its people, not to lift them out of hardship, and not to invest in their well-being – but to renovate an airport. This raises a fundamental and urgent question: Where are our national priorities?”

He maintained that “the time has come to rethink our priorities and put Nigerians first in every policy, every budget, and every decision.”

Obi in a statement asserted @PeterObi

“Nations Like Nigeria, Know What To Do To Prosper, But Just Can’t Do It. – James A. Robinson, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2024

“In July this year, the United Nations issued a frightening warning that 34 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger. This was also published in national dailies on August 1, 2025. This is not just an abstract statistic. It speaks of real people – our parents, children, neighbours, and friends – who are going to bed hungry and waking up without hope of a meal.

“So, while the country faces acute hunger — with Nigeria ranked among the hungriest countries in the world and classified under the category of “serious hunger”, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced a ₦712 billion budget for the renovation of an airport on the same August 1, 2025.

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“It is profoundly troubling that at a time when millions of Nigerians are facing the crushing burden of hunger, the Federal Government has chosen to approve a staggering ₦712.3 billion—not to feed its people, not to lift them out of hardship, and not to invest in their well-being, but to renovate an airport. This raises a fundamental and urgent question: Where are our national priorities?

“Let us not forget: in 2013, Nigeria secured a $500 million loan from the China Exim Bank, supplemented by counterpart funding, to upgrade five international airports – Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. If that massive investment was made barely a decade ago, what justifies an even larger sum today for just one airport – especially at a time when Nigerians are starving, internally displaced, and desperate?

“As a nation, our primary obligation is to protect and provide for our people, to ensure they are fed, healthy, and secure. While physical infrastructure like airports and roads matter, they cannot prioritise against hunger, health, education and security. Food security itself is a national security and economic strategy.

“Development is about choices. It’s about understanding that national progress begins with the basics: human development, not with grandiose infrastructure projects. A government that builds grandiose infrastructure while its people starve is not building a nation – it is betraying one.

“The time has come to rethink our priorities and put Nigerians first in every policy, every budget, and every decision.

“We must prioritise and concentrate our resources in critical areas of development: security of lives and property, health, education and pulling our people out of poverty.

“A New Nigeria is POssible. –PO”