In a time when public cynicism towards governance is often justified by broken promises and arrested development, the unveiling of Enugu Air by Governor Peter Mbah marks a refreshing departure, a move that blends ambition, strategy, and execution into a narrative of possibility. The inaugural flight of the state-owned airline, flagged off on 7 July, 2025, is not merely a ribbon-cutting spectacle but a telling metaphor of what it means to give wings to a collective vision.
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Governor Mbah, speaking with the sure-footedness of a man, who has tethered policy to performance, declared that “Enugu Air has given more wings to our dreams.” In that statement lies the ideological core of the project. This is not just about commercial aviation; it is about taking Enugu from the periphery of national development into the epicentre of investment, tourism, and global relevance.
Indeed, the aviation sector, capital-intensive and notoriously bureaucratic, is not a venture for the faint-hearted, much less for states run on lean allocations and bloated expectations. Yet, Mbah’s administration has launched Enugu Air, hopefully not as a vanity project, but as a strategic economic enabler. It is perhaps the boldest signal yet that the old playbook of sluggish governance is being rewritten in Enugu with a pen of urgency and a paper of innovation.
The emphasis on public-private partnerships is particularly noteworthy. Nigeria’s aviation history is littered with the carcasses of failed government-owned airlines, defunct symbols of bureaucratic overreach and poor enterprise models. What seems to distinguish Enugu Air is its foundation in collaboration. Gov Mbah has avoided the trap of turning the state into an unwieldy corporate behemoth. Instead, he has leveraged the efficiency and investment drive of the private sector while retaining state ownership. That balance, quite innovative in our contemporary times, might well be the key to the airline’s sustainability.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, seized the occasion to clear misconceptions about the future of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport. His explanation that the airport is not being sold but concessioned to private investors is crucial. The difference is not just semantic; it is structural. Concessioning, if done transparently and equitably, offers a middle path between outright privatization and inefficient public management. By clarifying this, Keyamo anchored the federal government’s support and distanced the project from the anxieties of asset striping.
Perhaps more importantly, Keyamo’s remarks about the cargo terminal serve to underscore the strategic depth of this move. For decades, the Southeast has suffered economic asphyxiation due to inadequate infrastructure for exports. With a functional cargo terminal, Enugu can now serve as a gateway for agro-exports and manufactured goods. That is not only good economics; it is economic justice.
It bears mentioning that this transformation is taking place in a region often stereotyped as politically marginalized and infrastructurally neglected. His Excellency’s actions challenge this narrative. He is not begging the centre for handouts; he is building a subnational template that asserts agency, attracts investment, and delivers measurable progress.
But success, like an aircraft, is sustained not by the take-off alone but by consistent navigation through storms and turbulence. Enugu Air must now prioritize safety, efficiency, and service excellence. If the project becomes bogged down by bureaucratic inertia or devolves into a political patronage scheme, it will crash under the weight of its own promise. The government must ensure that technocrats, not sycophants, drive operations.
There is also the need to institutionalize transparency. What is the ownership structure of Enugu Air? Who are the private investors? What are the terms of partnership and projected timelines for profitability? Citizens have a right to these details, not just as stakeholders but as funders of public projects.
Ultimately, what makes this launch most significant is its symbolism. In a country where development is often a mirage, Enugu Air reminds us that governments can still dream, and more importantly, deliver. It is a challenge to other subnational leaders. Stop waiting for federal manna; instead, charter your course, refuel your vision, and take off.
Governor Peter Mbah may have described the launch as a “fitting gift to Ndi Enugu,” but in truth, it is a gift to the nation, an audacious declaration that progress is possible when vision meets action.
Yet, amid all the celebration and photo-ops, a sobering question must be asked: who truly benefits from Enugu Air?
For many of the ordinary and economically disadvantaged Ndi Enugu, Enugu Air is a distant dream—a luxury built with their collective wealth, yet designed for the exclusive use of society’s upper crust. In their lived reality, where a bag of rice remains a monthly miracle and good healthcare or potable water is still aspirational, air travel is neither needed nor imagined. The cost of a one-way ticket is often more than a petty trader’s entire monthly turnover. For this demographic, Enugu Air could easily be seen—not without reason—as another elite project masked in the language of public good.
This is the paradox of modern governance in Nigeria: economic strides are made, but they often march past the poor.
The risk here is not just political—it is moral. When public projects cater disproportionately to the elite while the basic needs of the masses remain unmet, resentment festers and legitimacy erodes. A new airline cannot lift the people if it only lifts the privileged. A gold-plated runway means little to a village that has no motorable road, no school roof, no clinic.
Governor Mbah must therefore ensure that Enugu Air is not remembered as a beautiful aircraft in a broken airport of human need. The vision must now expand. Development must touch the soil as much as it touches the skies.
This does not mean Enugu should abandon ambitious projects. Rather, it means ambition must be broadened to include rural transformation, grassroots empowerment, and everyday essentials. Good governance is not about choosing between flying high and walking far; it is about ensuring no one is left behind in the journey.
Affordable housing, accessible healthcare, rural electrification, women and youth empowerment, and education reform—these must now follow swiftly as companion projects to Enugu Air. The symbolic flight must inspire physical roads; the wings of vision must find legs on the ground.
In the final analysis, Enugu Air is both a symbol and a signal: a symbol of what is possible when leadership is bold, and a signal that Enugu is ready to open its doors to the world. But symbolism must now meet substance at the level of the common man.
In the words of Leonardo da Vinci, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Governor Mbah has tasted flight. But now, he must walk with his people—particularly those who may never fly but whose sweat has funded the flight.
If Enugu keeps its eyes skyward, there may yet be no limit to how high it can soar.
Let Enugu Air be the first wing of a broader promise. Let the second wing be justice, equity, and inclusion. Only then will the flight be complete. Once again, kudos to Gov Peter Mbah’s administration.
•Prof Agbedo is of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, a Fellow of Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and Public Affairs Analyst
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