The above link is just a report I made of the visit, but truth was that a lot was not captured in the report. Let me tell you the back-end stories that were not captured in the above report.

I drove our crew to the airport project and true to reports, work was at advanced stage. From a far distance as we drove to the project, we could see a beehive of activities going on in the site. Heavy duty equipment could be seen moving around the bowl of the site, but shortly after, we ran into a hitch.

Some local youths had barricaded the entrance into the airport’s tarmac, where work was on-going.  They politely stopped our vehicle and asked who we were. We introduced ourselves as journalists, with smiles on our faces, trying to be as polite and friendly as we could. They told us there was a standing instruction not to let anyone enter the site. I guess Governor Obiano wanted to surprise Anambra people with the project, as there was also an instruction that workers in the project site should not take pictures.

When it was obvious the youths won’t let us in, we tried a fast one on them. We lied we were from the works commissioner, and that the idea of the visit was to write about the wonderful work Obiano was doing, but not even that could give us access. The youths told us the order not to let anyone in was incidentally from the same Commisioner, and that if we could speak with him, we could gain access.

I decided to call and commend the Commisioner on the job so far and tell him we were here to do a great job for him. I didn’t know his reaction would be that hard. “Where did you say you are?”

“Inside the airport project sir,” I retorted. He immediately lost his cool. “How did you get in? Who gave you access inside the project? You better leave now, so you don’t get into harm’s way,” he bellowed at me from the other end. On a second thought, he told me if I needed any clarification, I should come to his office in Awka, but I should leave the site immediately.

Putting off the phone, I told my friends the man was hostile to me, and that we needed to leave immediately. They demanded to be briefed about what the Commisioner said to me, but as I made to tell the story, a Hilux van drove from the project site to the gate and the occupant stopped and looked at us with stern eyes, demanding who we were. We introduced ourselves and said we were here to look around and witness the good job they were doing. The reply from the non-smilling guy was simple – “Please leave now. This place is not a place you come to look around.”

The man reversed the van and sped back into the project site, leaving us. It became obvious we were not wanted, so, we hurriedly entered our vehicle and started driving through what is today the airport’s runway, as we returned home. We haven’t driven long on the dusty road, as I briefed my colleagues on my conversation with the Commisioner, when suddenly, I saw from the rear view mirror a Mack truck driving through the dusty road behind us, approaching us in full speed, and just one thought, I swerved into the bush and parked the car.

The truck sped past us almost immediately we swerved off the road, and missed crushing us by whiskers. The truck got to the front, stopped, reversed and started speeding towards us again, this time face to face. We decided to all jump out of the car, so that only the car will be wasted if it came to that. The truck got to our side, applied automatic brakes, and belched in the manner only such trucks do, as it released gas. The head of the Mack truck noded same way a lizard nods upon jumping down from a height. The truck driver peered at us from the height of the truck, shook his head, as if in regret, then sped off.

We quickly entered our car and scampered away in fear. It was obvious that some people were not happy with our visit, and we needed to escape alive, and that, we did.

The next day, I mobilized my colleagues and we went to the office of the Commisioner. We were confident that the project was being executed with public funds, and the people needed to be told the progress of the project their money was being used for. We got to the Commisioner’s office, and to our surprise after I introduced myself, he asked: “Who are these people with you? You didn’t tell me you came with some people to the project when we spoke yesterday?”

I was already thinking in my mind that the threat to life we encountered may have been because they thought I was alone on the visit, when the commissioner told us, we should be careful where we went, because we could lose our lives. I was shocked to my marrow, and as we recovered from that blow, he said to us “If there is any clarification you need about roads or other project, we will grant you interview, but as for the airport, we will not talk about it.”

We told him too with defiance that we were there to talk about airport project, and we will not be willing on any interview that is not about the airport. That was how we left.

As the airport project is finally Commisioned, may I congratulate Governor Obiano for his tenacity in ensuring completion of the project, despite the initial setback caused by the withdrawal of Sinoking Ltd. We have no doubt that the airport would be viable as the governor envisages, but may we remind the governor that the project was previously planed to be an aerodrome, an Airport City, which should have a five star hotel, aircraft maintenance section, and aviation fuel dump.

Rome was not built in a day, so, we thank Obiano for the one he has done, hoping that the administration after him will actualize the full dream of what Obiano wanted the airport to be.

We don’t set out to criticize, we only do the job that journalism confers us on, which is holding all persons, organisations and governments to account. Congratulations to Anambra people, congratulations to Governor Obiano, and may it be well with you all.