Within just one month of dramatic entry by his administration President Bola Tinubu has left nobody in doubt that he is Nigeria’s new leader who is ready to make an impact on the state of affairs across the nation. However, in the context that he is change-minded, he therefore needs to appreciate that when he is not bringing tangible solutions to any aspect of the country’s challenges, he has simply elected to become part of the problem. This is the very reason why he needs to ensure that neither does he put the wrong foot forward, nor step to bruise some toes the wrong way. Of interest in this respect is the recent exercise of renaming of some airports in Nigeria and in a manner that has generated bad blood for his administration, which he and the country do not need for now. That is with respect to the renaming of the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), after the late Chief Obafemi Awlolowo.
In an official statement by the Federal Ministry of Aviation dated June 1, 2023, but released after several weeks, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the renaming of 15 airports in Nigeria as follows. A striking feature of the exercise was the matching of the new names of the respective airports with national political figures who hail from the vicinities of the facilities, except of course for Port Harcourt International Airport which was renamed after Obafemi Awolowo—a figure who in spite of his admissibly towering status in the country’s political space, was and still remains a total stranger to the Niger Delta vicinity in which the facility is located. So revulsive has the development been in the region that it has spawned a significant groundswell of resentment among not only stakeholders, but a wide cross section of the generality of the Nigerian public. Among the several connotations associated with the development is that it constitutes a denigration of the contributions by generations of heroes of the Nigerian project from the Niger Delta region. Some of the more agitated protesters even insinuate that the development constitutes a telltale sign of a sleight of hand by the Tinubu administration, to ride rough shod over the sensitivities of the region, given the latter’s minority status as far as the ‘almighty’ population factor in Nigerian politics is concerned.
In whatever dimension the situation may be seen by the spokespersons of the Tinubu administration, a quick remediation of the situation especially give the mounting resentment over it in the region, remains most timeous. To do otherwise constitutes a most brazen play-out of crass insensitivity, that is devoid of political wisdom, and which may attract some unintended outcomes for the administration.
Ordinarily, naming of public institutions and facilities after iconic figures in any circumstance and context, is traditionally intended to immortalize the noble values which such figures are easily identified with. Hence the essence of commemorating the icons is to embed and internalise their memories in the minds of the local communities. That is why the best results in choice of names for public institutions is often derived through consultation with the respective local communities, whose sensitivity to such exercises remains paramount.
It is against this backdrop that questions are now raging over whether the sensitivities of the Niger Delta region were considered by the officials who concocted this misadventure. Typical questions that are raging include –‘Who suggested the renaming of Port Harcourt International Airport to Obafemi Awolowo International Airport? Who were the stakeholders in the region that were consulted and how widespread were the opinions harnessed to lead to the decision? What then is the way forward to obviate any undue outcome now and in the future, over this vexatious outing by the Tinubu administration in this respect? And more pointedly, if the renaming of the facility was to immortalise a national figure, does the region not have any such person to be considered?
The answers to these questions remain self manifest as not only is the region brimming with eligible iconic national figures dead or living, in an area of human enterprise. Hence the exercise of discounting such persons constitutes a clear-cut error of judgment and which needs to be reversed by the Tinubu administration now—early in its life, or allow the malady to fester until another succeeding administration does the needful by reversing same. This consideration is informed by the trending mindset in the region that successive administrations in the federal level hardly place due premium on the circumstances of the region except to exploit its rich oil and gas deposits. It is doubtful if President Bola Tinubu will need to start his administration with such a negative in his dalliance with the Niger Delta.
This is where the misadventure of the officials who conjured up and associated the name of the great Awo, into this political. If for nothing else, they stand betrayed by the bare facts and tendencies of contemporary Nigerian political history. If they had been more discretional or even honest enough they would have adopted the search for a more acceptable indigenous name from the region. It would have been when such an enterprise failed to yield results that the extreme choice or any other personality would have been considered.
Against the backdrop of his public life, Bola Tinubu is widely seen as a savvy politician who knows his onions around town. It is therefore tempting to believe that this mis-adventure in renaming of Port Harcourt International Airport hardly fits into his political agenda. He should therefore direct an immediate return to status quo ante, before the proverbial hand of a monkey stays too long in the pot of soup and starts resembling that of a human.
