Tinubu seeks a N100.51 billion promissory note to repay Yobe for the Damaturu airport; Yobe's own 2025 budget expected N50 billion from its sale

President Bola Tinubu has asked the House of Representatives to approve a promissory note of N100,509,017,255 to reimburse the Yobe State Government for building the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport in Damaturu. Yobe's own budgets have been pricing the same transaction for three years. Its approved budgets carry a capital receipt headed "Proceeds from the Sale of Damaturu Cargo International Airport": N10,000,000,000 in 2023, N26,000,000,000 in 2024 and N50,000,000,000 in 2025. The sum now before the National Assembly is 2.01 times the largest of those figures, and N50,509,017,255 more than it.

The request was reported on 13 October 2026 as a letter read on the floor by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, when the House resumed from its annual recess. According to those reports, the President recalled that the Federal Executive Council, at an extraordinary meeting on 23 May 2023, approved the federal takeover of the airport, which Yobe State built, and the reimbursement of its construction cost through a promissory note programme. The Bureau of Public Procurement then reviewed the project and recommended N100,509,017,255 as the amount payable. The President asked the House to approve the establishment and issuance of the note by the Debt Management Office. We could not read the letter itself: the Votes and Proceedings list on the National Assembly website ends in 2021, so its terms are taken here from press reports and are attributed, not established.

The state's side of the transaction is in its budgets, which the Nigeria Governors' Forum repository publishes. The capital receipts table of Yobe's 2023 approved budget (PDF page 17) lists "Proceeds from the Sale of Damaturu Cargo International Airport" under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, economic code 14020101, Other Capital Receipts, with nothing in the 2022 revised budget and N10,000,000,000.00 for 2023. The line first appears in the budget for the year in which the Federal Executive Council made its decision. The row beneath it, "Refund from Federal Government on Federal Road", carries N21,177,512,367.00 in the 2022 revised budget and N18,000,000,000.00 for 2023.

The 2024 approved budget (PDF page 14) shows how that first estimate fared. The airport receipt stood at N10,000,000,000.00 in the 2023 revised budget, and the column for 2023 performance from January to September shows a dash: nothing had been received. The state then raised the line to N26,000,000,000.00 in both its 2024 proposed and approved budgets, 23.43 per cent of total capital receipts of N110,950,000,000.00. In the same table the federal road refund performed: against N18,000,000,000.00 in the 2023 revised budget, the state recorded N10,998,084,201.58 received by September 2023.

The 2025 approved budget, published by the state as a spreadsheet, takes the series a year further. Its capital receipts sheet records the 2024 revised figure for the airport sale as N3,000,000,000, again with nothing in the column for performance from January to September 2024, and sets the 2025 approved figure at N50,000,000,000. That is 43.67 per cent of the N114,485,000,000 in capital receipts the state approved for 2025, and the largest single receipt in the table. The three annual figures are successive estimates of one expected payment, carried forward when it did not arrive, so they cannot be added together: the state's highest estimate of what the sale would bring is N50 billion.

The budgets also record what Yobe has spent on the airport, though not in full. The 2021 budget (printed page 33) gives 2020 full-year actual spending on "Construction of Airports/Aerodromes" by the Ministry of Transport and Energy of N5,031,052,347.00. The 2022 budget gives N4,695,003,209.28 spent from January to November 2021. The 2023 budget (PDF page 71) records 2022 performance of N820,738,884.42 under "Retention for the Construction of Cargo International Airport", the 2024 budget N479,455,818.41 from January to September 2023, and the 2025 budget N1,053,324,937.18 from January to September 2024. Those five figures add to N12,079,575,196.29. They leave out 2017 to 2019 and the closing months of several years, and the 2020 and 2021 lines do not name the airport, so they are not a construction cost. In May 2021 the state's then Commissioner for Transportation and Energy, Abdullahi Kukuwa, was reported as saying the contract had been awarded at N11 billion and had risen to over N18 billion through variations.

State spending continued after the federal decision of May 2023. The 2024 budget (page 90) approved N2,500,000,000.00 for "Retention for the Construction of Cargo Airport. Completion of various projects in Cargo International Airport N1,939,636,357.91". The 2025 budget approved N1,500,000,000 for a runway turning pad (N1.287 billion), retention for navigation aids and a wind-shear alert system (N112.7 million), runway lighting (N278 million) and a gatehouse and airside fencing (N107.9 million). Those four named items add to N1,785,600,000, more than the N1.5 billion line that carries them. Whether the Bureau of Public Procurement's figure covers this later work is not stated in any document we read.

On the federal side, the Debt Management Office's table of domestic debt by instrument at 30 June 2026 puts promissory notes outstanding at N1,215,240,943,631.29, made up of N206,815,011,873.00 in naira notes and N1,008,425,931,758.29 in foreign currency notes; the two add to the total printed. A single note of N100,509,017,255 would equal 48.60 per cent of the naira notes outstanding on that date and, other things unchanged, would take them to N307,324,029,128.00. Promissory notes are debt instruments paid at maturity, so the reimbursement does not need a line in the year's budget when the note is issued.

The federal budgets do treat one comparable case through appropriation. Both the 2025 Appropriation Act (page 1050) and the 2026 Appropriation Act (page 1399) carry, under the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, project ERGP31141740, "Refund for the Construction of Airport at Birnin Kebbi State (Ref No. SGF.OP/1/5.3/VIII)", at N4,000,000,000 each year. A text search of both Acts found no line naming the Damaturu airport. The 2024 Act on file is a scanned document and was not searched.

The record supports the principle of the refund. The Constitution places aviation, including airports, on the Exclusive Legislative List, and a state that paid to build an airport the Federal Government has taken over has a recognised claim to be repaid. The steps reported in the letter, a council decision, a review by the procurement bureau and a request for legislative approval before the Debt Management Office issues anything, are the route the Federal Government has used before. In October 2024 the Senate approved promissory notes of N15,137,336,095.88 for Kebbi State and N9,542,651,786.11 for Nasarawa State for airport projects, N24,679,987,881.99 in all, after a committee reported that the states had completed the work and paid their contractors. The Yobe request is 4.07 times that combined sum. Yobe's budgets also show the state receiving a federal refund before, for federal roads.

What the documents do not settle is the gap between the two prices. Yobe's budgets expected at most N50 billion; the procurement bureau recommended N100,509,017,255. The difference may reflect works, equipment, land or costs that the state's spending lines do not capture, a valuation rather than a cost, or something else; no document we read says. The note's tenor, interest and maturity were not in the reports of the letter. Nothing in the record suggests wrongdoing by either government. The House can ask for the procurement bureau's review before it votes; that review is the document that would show how N100.5 billion was reached.

What this rests on

Request (as reported, letter not read): N100,509,017,255. Yobe receipt line 'Proceeds from the Sale of Damaturu Cargo International Airport': 2023 approved N10,000,000,000.00 (2023 budget PDF p.17); 2023 revised N10,000,000,000.00, 2023 Jan-Sep performance nil, 2024 approved N26,000,000,000.00 (2024 budget PDF p.14); 2024 revised N3,000,000,000, 2024 Jan-Sep performance nil, 2025 approved N50,000,000,000 (2025 budget spreadsheet, sheet 'Capital Reciept By Item', row 8). 100,509,017,255 / 50,000,000,000 = 2.0102 (2.01 times); 100,509,017,255 - 50,000,000,000 = 50,509,017,255. Shares: 26,000,000,000 / 110,950,000,000 = 23.43%; 50,000,000,000 / 114,485,000,000 = 43.67%. Federal road refund: 2023 revised 18,000,000,000.00, received Jan-Sep 2023 10,998,084,201.58. Yobe airport spending recorded: 2020 full year 5,031,052,347.00 + 2021 Jan-Nov 4,695,003,209.28 + 2022 820,738,884.42 + 2023 Jan-Sep 479,455,818.41 + 2024 Jan-Sep 1,053,324,937.18 = 12,079,575,196.29 (partial, not a cost). 2025 airport items: 1,287,000,000 + 112,700,000 + 278,000,000 + 107,900,000 = 1,785,600,000 against a line of 1,500,000,000. DMO 30 June 2026: 206,815,011,873.00 + 1,008,425,931,758.29 = 1,215,240,943,631.29 (matches printed total); 100,509,017,255 / 206,815,011,873.00 = 48.60%; 206,815,011,873.00 + 100,509,017,255 = 307,324,029,128.00. Precedent (press): 15,137,336,095.88 + 9,542,651,786.11 = 24,679,987,881.99; 100,509,017,255 / 24,679,987,881.99 = 4.07. Federal Acts: ERGP31141740 Birnin Kebbi airport refund N4,000,000,000 in 2025 Act p.1050 and 2026 Act p.1399; no Damaturu airport line found by text search of either Act.

What this does not establish

The President's letter was not read in its original form; its contents, including the FEC date of 23 May 2023 and the BPP recommendation, come from press reports. The basis of the BPP figure of N100,509,017,255 (construction cost, later works, equipment, land, valuation or financing) is not in any document read. The note's tenor, interest rate and maturity are not established. Yobe's complete spending on the airport since 2017 is not established: the budgets give partial-year performance and the 2020 and 2021 lines do not name the airport. Yobe's 2026 budget was not read, so whether it still carries the sale receipt is not established. Whether the National Assembly has approved, amended or referred the request is not established. The airport's certification status with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority was not confirmed from an official source. Whether the N4 billion Birnin Kebbi refund lines in the 2025 and 2026 Acts are part of, or separate from, the promissory note approved for Kebbi in 2024 is not established. The 2024 federal Appropriation Act was not searched because the copy on file is scanned. No wrongdoing by any party is suggested.