For years, Gateway International Airport sat quietly on the Ilishan-Remo/Iperu axis of Ogun State, a patch of undulating land that many doubted could ever host a functioning runway. Today, with an Interim Aerodrome Operational Permit in hand and an April 2026 commissioning behind it, the airport is no longer a rumour. What has now emerged, however, is a figure too large to wave away with ceremony: a reported $800 million price tag, translating to well over one trillion naira of public money.
That number deserves more scrutiny than applause, Seunmanuel Faleye writes. Was this Ogun State's money to spend this way, and did the people get value for it? The original idea, conceived during the administration of Otunba Senator Gbenga Daniel, was a public-private partnership in its truest form, where the state would hand over land as its only equity contribution, while private investors carried the full weight of financing, building and operating the airport.
That model made sense - investors do not release hundreds of millions of dollars without exhaustive due diligence on passenger numbers, cargo potential, airline interest and a realistic path to profit. Somewhere along the line, that arrangement shifted, and the burden moved from private capital to the public purse. That shift is the real story, and it is the one Ogun State owes its citizens a full explanation for.
If more than a trillion naira of government money has gone into a single airport, residents deserve to see exactly where it went, subhead by subhead, budget year by budget year, from 2017 through to 2026 - the procurement records, the contract sums, the names behind the companies that won the jobs, and certificates confirming work was done to standard. Put the figure beside what similar airports have cost elsewhere: the ANR Robinson International Airport terminal in Tobago cost about $870 million; Romania's Henri Coanda terminal roughly $862 million; Jordan's Queen Alia terminal in Amman about $800 million; Tokyo's Haneda Terminal 2 North Satellite expansion around the same figure; even Western Sydney's new runway component sits close to that mark.
Compare those with what currently stands at Iperu: a single passenger terminal modest in scale; one runway whose exact length, pavement strength and aircraft category have not been fully disclosed; a control tower with no public record of who installed it or at what cost; limited cargo-handling infrastructure despite the agro-cargo branding; and no published masterplan showing what future phases the $800 million covers.
Then there is the question of actual use: the state says the airport is operational, with Gateway Air running routes linking Iperu to Abuja, with onward connections to Port Harcourt, Calabar and Jos, alongside a service reportedly involving ValueJet - but until Ogun State publishes verified figures on flight frequency, passenger loads and cargo tonnage, the airport remains, commercially speaking, unproven.
None of this means Ogun was wrong to want an airport; a functioning agro-cargo hub could genuinely support the state's farmers, manufacturers and exporters. But if the money truly came from the public treasury, an independent forensic audit is not an insult; every naira should be traceable to a budget line, a contract, and a completed piece of work. Ogun citizens are not against development; they are against being asked to celebrate a runway while the books remain closed.
Source: https://applesbite.com/gateway-international-airports-800-million-question-now-faces-ogun-taxpayers/
