The National Agenda for Tinubu 2027 (NAFT.27), led by Dr. Aliyu Ibrahim, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rename the Port Harcourt International Airport in Omagwa after former President Muhammadu Buhari, who passed away on July 13, 2025, in a London hospital.
The appeal was made during a media chat with journalists in Abuja on Friday, July 18, 2025, as reported by Blueprint Newspapers and The Guardian Nigeria.Dr. Ibrahim, a prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), described the renaming as a gesture to honor Buhari’s legacy of unity, discipline, and humility, suggesting it would strengthen national unity between Nigeria’s North and South.
He praised Tinubu as a strategic political figure and noted that the president had already renamed the University of Maiduguri after Buhari following a similar call by NAFT.27 in Daura, Katsina State, on July 13, 2025.
Ibrahim stated, “President Buhari was not a perfect man. No leader is perfect. But he was, in every sense of the word, a good man, a decent man, an honourable man.”
However, the proposal has sparked controversy.
The Port Harcourt International Airport was previously renamed in June 2023 after Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a prominent Yoruba leader and former Premier of the Western Region, under a directive from then-President Buhari, as part of a broader renaming of 15 federal airports.
Critics, including voices from the South-South region, argue that renaming the airport after Buhari overlooks local heroes like Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isaac Boro, or King Jaja of Opobo, who represent the Niger Delta’s cultural and historical significance.
A 2023 opinion piece by Ebenezar Wikina on Medium and other platforms criticized the earlier renaming for marginalizing the South-South, calling for a national policy to guide such decisions with community consultation.
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