By Chinelo Obogo
The Sultan Abubakar International Airport, Sokoto facilitates the highest number of Muslim pilgrims in the North West region, but for decades, these pilgrims were condemned to using a 40-year-old derelict terminal for hajj operations. This is despite the fact that they have to cough out $100 passenger service charge each time they travel for hajj, a fee which goes into the coffers of the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN).
Danjuma Ahmed, told Daily Sun that from December 2023 when he resumed as the airport manager, to June 9, 2024, the total passenger movement at the airport was 89,226. Out of this figure, domestic arrival stood at 40,480; international arrival, 250; domestic departure, 42,708 and international departure, 5,788.
According to him, the first challenge he faced upon resumption was how to ensure the completion of the hajj terminal abandoned since 2022, which already started deteriorating. He said the efforts he put into ensuring the completion of the project have yielded positive results as the terminal is now open for use. But despite the success achieved, he sa the airport still lacks adequate infrastructure – deficient airfield lighting, congested airport building and dilapidated access gates.
Completion of Sokoto hajj terminal
As soon as I resumed as the airport manager in December 2023, the first thing I noticed was the dilapidated terminal that was being used for hajj operations for over 40 years. It was in a very terrible state and was not conducive for anyone to use, talk less of pilgrims that paid huge sums of money to travel. I wanted a more befitting place to be used for hajj operations an incidentally this structure was conceived in 2013 during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure who directed the former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, to come up with a structure that is befitting. The intention was to replicate it at all the airports where hajj operations are being conducted. The project didn’t start until 2015 and by 2022, it had gotten to 90 percent completion, but was then abandoned since then.
When I got here, I saw that the structure had begun deteriorating because of the abandonment and I immediately commenced engaging stakeholders in the state. I first of all paid a courtesy call to the Sultan where I highlighted the need for the project to be completed so that pilgrims can start using it and it would be generating revenue for the agency and he agreed and promised to escalate it to the state government. I also wrote the Managing Director of FAAN and visited her and discussed the need for the project to be completed and she agreed.
The chairman of the state pilgrim board, Ali Musa, also visited and I took him round and he promised to escalate it with the governor. After that, the chairman of the national hajj commission also visited and we took him round and he promised that the governor would do something about it. Two days later, the governor gave approval to Ali Musa and directed that the MD of FAAN should be informed about the decision of the government to assist. The scope left undone was landscaping, power supply, water supply, car park, lack of internal structures like counters, offices for aviation security, immigration, shops and the rest. They now went beyond the scope and built 10 lock up shops, toilets, outside tents, expansion of the car park and others that were not in the original scope. It was completed in three months. During the commissioning of the terminal, the minister of aviation, Festus Keyamo, named the structure after a former governor, Senator Aliyu Wamakko, who has been provided so many interventions to the airport. He provided funds for us to fix most of the air conditions in the airport that were not working. In the North West, Sokoto facilitates the highest number of pilgrims.
Commercial advantage of pilgrimage operations
The benefit of the pilgrimage operations at the airport is enormous. Each pilgrim pays $100 passenger service charge to FAAN. Also, the expansion of the car park has brought in additional income because we collect parking fee from each car that parks there and that excludes money paid at the access gate. Then we also rented out the lock up shops that were built at the new terminal. There are also other shops inside the terminal that are rented out, most importantly, the turnaround time for the airlines have been drastically reduced.
In the past, the pilgrims had to be ferried with a bus to almost 1,500 meters to the tarmac but now, we don’t need any bus to ferry passengers. Because of the seamless nature of the terminal, the check-in time has been reduced by over 90 percent, so the airlines can quickly turnaround and return without much delay unlike what was obtainable in the past. FAAN collects landing and parking fees from every airline that comes into the airport to lift pilgrims. Since May 28, the airline that carries out hajj operations here have done about 13 flights.
Challenges
The main airport terminal building is grossly inadequate. We don’t have airline offices, so most of the airlines are crammed inside a small space and we have more airlines like Azman that would soon commence operations here. We have been talking to our management to see how they can get us airline offices outside the terminal building so that we can relocate the airlines so that it can be decongested. The second issue is that the apron needs to be expanded because a seventh airline would soon commence operations. Imagine if we have three or four arrivals at a time, the apron would be congested.
We also have the problem of air field lighting. When I resumed here, the airfield lighting was not in a very good state but we have been able to improve it from the 20 percent where I met it to over 80 percent capacity. But it needs to be completely fixed so that it can function optimally. We also have issues with the condition of our access gates. It is not befitting and it needs to upgrade so that we can have absolute control of the flow of traffic and more revenue can also be generated.
Aviacargo
In one of my discussions with our MD, she implored us to get people to come and invest in the agro cargo sector. Sokoto produces a lot of crops like onions, corn and so on. We have been talking to key stakeholders in the state so we can get companies we can partner with to set up a well-functioning cargo terminal.
We have massive land which we can use to build such structures and we are looking for those we can partner with to invest in an agro cargo facility at the airport.