Human rights lawyer and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, has accused the Anambra State government of failing to comply with mandatory environmental laws in the construction of its proposed second airport in Ndikelionwu, Orumba North Local Government Area, describing the project as shrouded in secrecy.

In a statement titled "Anambra's Secret Second Airport and Failure of ESIA Compliance," shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday, July 13, Odinkalu alleged that the Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led state government has repeatedly failed to disclose any Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) report for the airport project despite public demands.

According to him, Nigeria's Environmental Impact Assessment Act, which has been in force since 1992, makes it compulsory for major public infrastructure projects to undergo a public and consultative Environmental Impact Assessment process before execution.

"Nigeria's Environmental Impact Assessment Act has been in existence since 1992,” Odinkalu said.

“It mandates a public & consultative Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report for all major public Works projects. This EIA process will culminate in a remediation plan that should be part of the project design.

"Today, best practice is to require an Environmental & Social Impact (ESIA) process & report. An airport falls into the category of projects for which there must be mandatory ESIA compliance."

Odinkalu maintained that the Soludo administration had neither published nor provided evidence of compliance with the statutory environmental requirements for the ongoing airport development.

"Despite repeated demands, Anambra State has failed or neglected to disclose any information on ESIA compliance in respect of the ongoing 2nd airport in Ndikelionwu in Orumba North LGA," he said.

He further criticised government officials for dismissing concerns over the project, saying they had instead resorted to branding the airport as part of an "Aerotropolis" without addressing the legal obligation to conduct and publish an ESIA.

Odinkalu said, "The response of spokespersons of the government is to deal with such inquiries as an adverse 'attack' & to trot out the line that they are building an 'Aerotropolis', as if that excuses the failure of compliance. In reality, this line makes the burden of ESIA compliance even more compelling.

"The resort to big words to confuse ordinary people is an old trick. Few people in the state know what an aerotropolis means or - justifiably - care to be impressed by that big word.

"Indeed, the people using the word to avoid or deflect from the obligation of statutory compliance show in the manner in which they invoke it that the idea of an aerotropolis is - at best - an undigested novelty to them."

The former NHRC chairman argued that examples of aerotropolis developments across the world demonstrate that such projects are long-term undertakings requiring sustained transparency and adherence to environmental regulations.

"You just need to look at examples of the aerotropolis around the world - Amsterdam (with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol); Songdo International Business District in South Korea (Incheon International Airport (ICN) or, indeed, Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas,” he said.

"It will be evident from these examples that an aerotropolis is an inter-generational project that cannot be completed by one administration & certainly not one in a term-limited final furlong.

"This consideration alone should compel utmost transparency about such a project as well as fidelity to statutory ESIA compliance. The secrecy about the project is self-defeating."

Odinkalu also warned that Anambra's fragile ecological landscape makes environmental compliance even more critical, cautioning that failure to comply with the law could ultimately doom the project and leave residents bearing the consequences.

According to him, "Anambra State sits on an intense & intensely fragile ecology. That places an even higher burden on the obligation of ESIA compliance.

"Failure of compliance in this respect risks condemning the project to the wasteland of abandoned white elephants at the end of the dispensation that originated it.

"For this kind of project, in the absence of an ESIA, as always, there will be serious consequences & it is the local, poor people who will pay it long after the present administration has exhausted its contingent legitimacy to rule."