ABUJA – The Labour Party’s (LP) standard bearer in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has queried the whereabouts of a $500 million loan he alleged was secured by the Federal Government in 2013, from the Export-Import Bank of China for the upgrade of five international airports— Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. Obi in an X thread on Wednesday al-leged that the loan was supplemented by counterpart funding aimed at giving the affected infrastructures lasting face-lift. The former Anambra governor’s remarks are coming amid concerns over a recent disclosure by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo, that the President Bola Tinubu’s administration plans to inject N712 billion to reno-vate the Murtala Muhammed International Airport terminal in Lagos. - On the fresh N712 billion ear-marked for the renovation of the Lagos airport, few years after the facility reportedly enjoyed parts of the “$500 million” Nexim Bank loan, Obi queried, “If that mas-sive investment was made bare-ly a decade ago, what justifies an even larger sum today for just one airport – especially at a time when Nigerians are starving, internally displaced, and desperate?” He said it is “profoundly trou-bling that at a time when mil-lions of Nigerians are facing the crushing burden of hunger, the Federal Government has chosen to approve a staggering N712.3 billion—not to feed its people, not to lift them out of hardship, and not to invest in their well-being, but to renovate an airport. This raises a fundamental and urgent question: Where are our national priorities?” He added that government’s primary obligation is to “protect and provide for our people, to ensure they are fed, healthy, and secure. “While physical infrastruc-ture like airports and roads mat-ter, they cannot prioritise against hunger, health, education and security. Food security itself is a national security and economic strategy. “Development is about choic-es. It’s about understanding that national progress begins with the basics: human development, not with grandiose infrastructure projects. “A government that builds grandiose infrastructure while its people starve is not building a nation – it is betraying one.” Parts of the thread also reads, “In July, this year, the United Na-tions issued a frightening warn-ing that 34 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger. This was also published in national dailies on August 1, 2025. “This is not just an abstract statistic. It speaks of real people – our parents, children, neigh-bours, and friends – who are go-ing to bed hungry and waking up without hope of a meal. “So, while the country faces acute hunger — with Nigeria ranked among the hungriest countries in the world and clas-sified under the category of “se-rious hunger”, the Federal Gov-ernment of Nigeria announced a N712 billion budget for the ren-ovation of an airport on the same August 1, 2025. “It is profoundly troubling that at a time when millions of Nigerians are facing the crush-ing burden of hunger, the Fed-eral Government has chosen to approve a staggering N712.3 bil-lion—not to feed its people, not to lift them out of hardship, and not to invest in their well-being, but to renovate an airport. This raises a fundamental and urgent question: Where are our national priorities? “Let us not forget: in 2013, Ni-geria secured a $500 million loan from the China Exim Bank, sup-plemented by counterpart fund-ing, to upgrade five internation-al airports – Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. “If that massive investment was made barely a decade ago, what justifies an even larger sum today for just one airport – espe-cially at a time when Nigerians are starving, internally displaced, and desperate? “As a nation, our primary ob-ligation is to protect and provide for our people, to ensure they are fed, healthy, and secure. “While physical infrastruc-ture like airports and roads mat-ter, they cannot prioritise against hunger, health, education and security. Food security itself is a national security and economic strategy. “Development is about choic-es. It’s about understanding that national progress begins with the basics: human development, not with grandiose infrastructure projects. “A government that builds grandiose infrastructure while its people starve is not building a nation – it is betray-ing one. “The time has come to rethink our priorities and put Nigerians first in every policy, every budget, and every decision. “We must prioritise and con-centrate our resources in critical areas of development: security of lives and property, health, educa-tion and pulling our people out of poverty.”