Potiskum Airport A colonial relic in ruins

The airport was once regarded by local residents as a marvellous site of air transport, graced by the White colonial masters and local elite.But things have long changed. With the passage of time, planes no longer land on the three-kilometre tarmac and over 100 houses, including a secondary school, have been built by “land trespassers” […]

The airport was once regarded by local residents as a marvellous site of air transport, graced by the White colonial masters and local elite.But things have long changed. With the passage of time, planes no longer land on the three-kilometre tarmac and over 100 houses, including a secondary school, have been built by “land trespassers” along the perimeters of the airport, reducing its vast expanse of land.

Adamu recalled with nostalgia the last time he saw an aircraft at the airport. “It was in January this year when President Umaru Yar’adua came with two helicopters to attend the burial of former governor of Yobe State Late Senator Mamman Ali,” he said.

He equally recalled that three years before then, another jet belonging to Dana Airlines landed at the airport with some White men who fumigated the farmland around Potiskum, Jakusko and Azare in Bauchi State in order to control the ravaging effects of quelea birds.

“I was a young man when I got my security job which was one of the best anyone could get in this part of the country because of the strategic importance of the airport which hitherto facilitated activities of the White men as well as the movement of top government functionaries and business activities,” Adamu, who is among the only five people still ‘working’ at the airport, told our reporter.

He, however, lamented that the airport which was older than that of Maiduguri was now the shadow of itself. “All the then senior staff of the airport, including Mr Thomas, who was the airport manager, and Mr Okere, the technical manager, had left. For now I am more or less the unofficial manager, technical officer, store officer and what have you,” he added.
Other ‘employees’ at the airport, according to him, included Muhammad Isa and Dahiru Garba who were in the signal office; Muhammed Garba and Malam Garba who worked in the security office.

“We do shift everyday and those working with me today have gone for break; they will soon be back,” Isa said, smiling.
 “Even though we don’t anticipate the coming of any aircraft, we always come to the airport to discharge our responsibilities.
“I believe that our presence is very important because assuming that we are not around, the whole premises would have been chopped off by land speculators,” he said.
Isa disclosed that they always get their monthly salaries, even though they are often told that there was no money for overhead expenditure. “We get our salary regularly; that is why we always come to work.

“We feel government still believes that the airport is very important. Our hope is that one day it would be revived,” he added.
Although Potiskum has remained a thriving economic hub of the state because of its strategic position as a centre of commerce, learning and spiritual and cultural revivalism, the story of its airport elicits sadness to the town’s residents.   
Up until this day, Potiskum is second to none around the area when it comes to business activities because people from neighbouring Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe States as well as many others from Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republics have a stake at its cattle market, adjudged to be one of the biggest in Sub-Saharan Africa.          

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Adamu pointed out that the economic importance of Potiskum was probably responsible for the traces of colonial presence in the town and its vicinities notable of which is the   aerodrome.
Unfortunately, however, many residents of Potiskum who are below the age of 30 never knew there was an airport at their backyard until the last visit of Yar’adua.
What people find at the airport now is an eye sore as all the structures which hitherto made the aerodrome a good means of transportation and tourists’ attraction had virtually collapsed.
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s (NAMA) office in the field which is supposed to be responsible for the transmission of air traffic information to aircraft flying over the airfield is not fully functional as the Omni-Directional Range Equipment installed there is not equipped with computers to enable the workers monitor the movements of planes hovering over Potiskum.
The whole airport presents a bad picture, typified by structures with blown off roofs. The airstrip fire station, terminal building and staff quarters had all collapsed even as the few surviving structures have been taken over by weeds. Reptiles, including snakes, have also found abode in the dilapidated buildings.
Adamu said the only facility working at the airport was the radio. “We use it to communicate with Maiduguri Airport when there is power supply,” he said.
Although a dilapidated room was said to be the signal room, this writer observed that the airport no longer has radar and there is no perimeter fencing.
A beautiful caravan with two air-conditioned rooms which hitherto served as guest room has also collapsed while only one of the three power generating sets was seen, though that too was in bad shape.
The airport has also become a driving school with people learning how to drive cars patronizing the place on daily basis. Animals, including cows and sheep, have also found an undisturbed grazing land.
In the northern part of the airport, many people have planted maize, millet, beans and guinea corns. “We allow them to farm in order to control desert encroachment,” Adamu said, quickly adding, however, that as the chief security officer of the airport he does not collect any money from the farmers.
Musa Mai Kilishi concurred. “The airport officials did not collect anything from me, even though they warned me not to ever think that the land was mine. It is really pleasurable because last year I got more than 30 bags of grains; and from all indications I may get more this year,” he said.
Observers said the airfield which was once a beehive of activities during the colonial days could still be useful today. Musa Ajiri, an old man in Potiskum, said “the airport came into being during the scramble for Africa by the colonialists because Potiskum was a sprawling town in the North which was earlier annexed by Germans before the British took over.
“The aim of constructing the airport was to make the movements of the White men in and out of Potiskum easy because the town is also a gateway to other nearby towns in the North which had enhanced trading activities and other associated commercial services in the region,” he said.
Ajiri further revealed that around 1945, when the airport was built, it was a fascinating scene to behold, as planes carrying goods and colonial masters took off and landed in Potiskum on daily basis.
He said even if the federal government would not be willing to revive the airport, the Yobe State government should reactivate it for official and commercial purposes. “I think, instead of always going to Maiduguri Airport which is over 130 kilometres from Damaturu, it would be easier and more economical for the state government to start using the Potiskum Airport which is closer,” Ajiri observed.
He pointed out that Potiskum community would be happy if the airport would be reactivated so that the place can regain its lost glory.
For people like Alhaji Mahmuda, a 65-year-old retired school teacher, leaving the airport in disarray is not only bad, but a calculated attempt to bury a historical site.
“I hope that the Yobe State government will take over the airport from the federal government and restore its shape. “We really need our own airport here,” he added.