President Bola Tinubu has asked the National Assembly to approve a N100.5 billion Yobe airport refund, paid as a promissory note, to reimburse the state for the Damaturu airport the federal government has taken over. He also sent lawmakers three bills.
The requests were in letters read Tuesday as lawmakers resumed work after their annual recess. House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas read the letter in the House of Representatives, and Senate President Godswill Akpabio read a similar request in the Senate.
What the Yobe airport refund would cover
The money would reimburse Yobe for building the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport in Damaturu. The Federal Executive Council approved the takeover at an extraordinary meeting on May 23, 2023, before Tinubu took office, together with a decision to pay the state back through a promissory note.
The Debt Management Office would issue the note. After the Bureau of Public Procurement reviewed the project, it recommended an amount of about N100.5 billion, according to the Senate letter. The House letter put the figure at N100,509,017,255.
The Senate referred its request to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts for scrutiny. The Speaker promised the House would give the request and the bills prompt and careful consideration.
The three bills sent to the House
Tinubu transmitted the National Research Development Fund Bill, which is meant to strengthen research in Nigeria. He also sent two bills to bring international humanitarian and criminal justice instruments into Nigerian law, one on the Geneva Conventions and one on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The Geneva Conventions set rules for protecting civilians, prisoners and the wounded in war. The Rome Statute created the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when national courts cannot or will not.
None of the three bills has yet been debated, and the text of each was not immediately available.
Questions the refund raises
State approvals came in stages. Yobe’s executive council approved about N11.3 billion in 2017 to build the airport, which it called the first cargo airport in the Northeast, and later approved more money for fire trucks, a wind shear alert system and extra works.
Early reports do not explain how the Bureau of Public Procurement arrived at its figure, which is far larger than the first state approvals.
There is also a legal question. Aviation is on the Exclusive Legislative List, but commentators note that this alone does not entitle a state that builds an airport to reimbursement, and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Act allows the authority to manage airports transferred to it.
Lawmakers have the final say, and could approve, amend or reject the sum.
A promissory note is a government IOU. Instead of paying cash now, the Debt Management Office issues a note that the holder can typically hold until maturity or sell to investors, and the federal government settles it later.
The Yobe airport refund is still only a request, not a payment yet. Lawmakers will decide whether the number holds up under scrutiny.
