A Nigerian aviation industry union has described the achievements of the federal government over the past seven years as “indelible,” but expressed worry that the planned demolition of three of its agencies’ offices in Lagos would make rubbish of all successes of the past years.
Comrade Ocheme Aba, the general secretary, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), told our correspondent that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded immutable successes through Sen. Hadi Sirika, the minister of aviation, and other chief executive officers (CEOs) in various agencies.
He said although the large footprints may not be visible to the larger public, huge modernization programs and projects had been achieved in the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in recent years.
He explained that these projects being implemented by the various agencies have had a big impact on human capacity development in the country while flying experience has also gotten better.
He said, “So, we place on record our recognition of the large footprints of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration on the aviation industry in Nigeria. The progress registered through the efforts of the minister of aviation, and the CEOs of agencies in the past seven years are indeed indelible.
“These achievements have not only significantly improved flying experience in the Nigerian air space, but have had a big impact on human capacity development and safety. Dispassionate industry insiders cannot, but praise these efforts that are clearly beyond what the industry had witnessed before now.”
The big issue: Aba, however, expressed sadness that these achievements may be ruined by the planned demolition of the Lagos offices of NCAA, FAAN, and NAMA, which until June 2020, remained the headquarters of the aforementioned agencies.
He also emphasized that the alleged concessioning of the four airports, Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt by the minister was another move that could bastardize the lofty objectives of the aviation roadmap as presented to the industry stakeholders in the last quarter of 2015.
Questionable actions: Aba explained that activities around the implementation of the road map by the minister had led to suspicion by several stakeholders in the industry.
For instance, he purported that key decisions and actions around the projects were taken outside the statutory organs of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the project delivery team in which the unions were represented.
According to him, such questionable actions included the appointment of transaction advisers and approval of business cases for all the projects without the involvement of all stakeholders.
He added that since the government proposed the concession of the four major airports, the unions had consistently, strongly opposed the idea, even when the outline business case was made open to the public.
“We unearthed several booby traps, outright falsehoods, and deliberate manipulation of facts to skew the transaction against the interest of Nigeria, which we communicated to the minister and other arms of government,” he alleged.
For instance, Aba purported that the minister extended the scope of the concession to the surroundings of the terminals, up to FAAN housing estates without taking such into account in the assets valuation.
Untenable investment budgets: He also declared that the terminals required no further investments for the envisaged period of the concession, but decried that the minister, without any real basis determined “humongous investment budgets” for intending concessionaires.
Besides, the union leader accused the minister of arbitrarily fixing the profit-sharing ratio (60:40) in favor of the concessionaire, adding that the government was also silent on labor issues, among others.
