Nigerian state names airport after Tinubu less than a year after being renamed
Governor of Nigeria's central Niger state, Mohammed Bago made a last-minute decision to rename its newly renovated local airport after President Bola Tinubu less than a year after it was renamed.
Bago decided to change the name of the airport previously called Abubakar Imam International Airport, named after a renowned Nigerian scholar who founded the first Hausa-language newspaper in northern Nigeria to Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport.
The airport which was previously named after the late Nigerian literary icon less than a year ago in June 2023 was commissioned by President Tinubu on March 11.
The governor after the airport name change decided to rename the Niger State Polytechnic, Zungeru, after Abubakar Imam.
In a live interview with TVC News Nigeria, he stated that naming the State Polytechnic Zungeru after the late Abubakar Imam is more fitting and it ensures that "we are putting a square peg in a square hole."
"Bola Ahmed Tinubu being a father of the nation, being a very astute politician who has paid his price needs to be celebrated," he said
"He has been so magnanimous to us and he gave us the first agro-processing free zone airport in Nigeria... I sat down with my stakeholders and we thought it was wise for us to do that immediately, we got his approval," he added.
The Tinubu-led government in June 2023 instructed Nigerian aviation officials to rename fifteen federal airports in honour of notable Nigerians, including former presidents which included the renaming of the Niger state airport (then Minna Airport) to Abubakar Imam airport.
