The Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu State, which was closed in 2019 because of ongoing renovation by the Federal Government, is to be re-opened at the end of COVID -19 pandemic.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, stated this to reporters at the weekend.
He also said that one third of the span of Second Niger Bridge had been done while many stretches of Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt highways had been done as well.
These, according to the former Governor of Anambra State, were parts of the many projects being handled in the Southeast by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He disclosed the Akanu Ibiam Airport, which President Buhari approved for rehabilitation at the cost of N10 billion, would be reopened after COVID-19 lockdown.
He noted that laying of fibreglass and binder course for the regulated runway were ongoing already.
He added that the presidential interventions in the project also included new cargo section, new arrival and departure terminal and medical centre-clinic and peri-meter fencing
On the lingering strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ngige said the leadership of the union was deceiving its members.
The Minister said IPPIS was the main reason ASUU embarked on strike.
He said there was nowhere in the world that employees dictated to employers how to pay them.
He said even when the Federal Government conceded to the system adopted by ASUU, the union went further to request for 18 months to allow its researchers work on it.
“ASUU leadership should go and tell it’s members the whole truth between it and the Federal Government”, Ngige said.