Segun Ayinde, Abeokuta
Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila has said that the Gateway International Agro-Cargo and Passenger Airport will revolutionize air transportation in Southwest states and the entire country.
He equally commended the bold step of Governor Dapo Abiodun in making the airport a reality even when other state governor’s were unable to achieve the feat, saying that the airport would soon be the transportation hub for other states in the South-West and Nigeria.
Gbajabiamila disclosed this while responding to newsmen at the airport shortly after attending the commissioning of the Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona School of Governance Studies and presentation of a book titled Reinventing Governance in Nigeria: The Oba (Dr) Sikiru Kayode Adetona Model,” at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.
He said the airport would help drive the economy of the state, neighbouring states, and the country as a whole insisting that with the world class airport the ease of doing business in the state would also be improved as such would attract more investors.
The former Speaker of House of Representatives also described the administration of Abiodun as transformative, with many infrastructural projects across the state
He said “For Ogun State, this airport has the potential of being a hub for every other state around the South-West and improving the ease of doing business. You can travel from here. The potential is enormous. You can’t begin to count; it has its ripple effects on the economy.
“When I was in the National Assembly over the years, I knew of several states in the South-West that tried and struggled to build airports that were nowhere of this size and they were not able to do it. Without taking anything away from them, it’s commendations all the way for Governor Dapo Abiodun.
“I was surprised at what it looks like inside. The outside belies the inside, and I think the governor has done a good job. He deserves to be commended.
“I believe this airport was built in two years and some months, and that is a short period within which to complete an airport such as this.
“It has the longest runway, and you know what that means. So, all in all, we have to give kudos to the governor.
“Coming here today, this is my first time at the airport. I have heard so much about it; he is so proud of it.
“You know it is one thing to put your money somewhere to do something and do it for the sake of doing it. But when you do something and you believe in it and you have a passion for what you are doing, the output, the product, is different because you put your all into it, and that is what I see here in this airport.
“I can only describe his administration in one word: transformative, very transformative.
“We’ve come, we’ve seen, what you see is what you get and each time I come here, I see what his administration is doing, especially in terms of infrastructural development and I give kudos to His Excellency, the governor”.