Aviation Workers Give FG 15-day Ultimatum to Halt Planned Concession

•Allege Bi-Courtney owes FAAN N2bn
Chinedu Eze
Aviation workers under the aegis of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN); the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) have given the federal government 15 days to jettison the planned concession of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and three other major airports in the country as well as also disband the Transactional Advisors meant to concession the airports.

The workers threatened to paralyse the aviation industry indefinitely if the federal government continues with the planned concession, which they insisted was insincere and self-serving.

Speaking in a press conference in Lagos yesterday, the General Secretary of NUATE, Olayinka Abioye, alleged that the federal government, through planned concession, wants to sell the nation’s airports to already designated companies without open bidding or transparent process.

The workers said there is alternative and more workable solution to the management of the airports, adding that the planned concession under the Public, Private Partnership (PPP) cannot work under the “insincere” disposition of successive governments that have not shown commitment and sincerity in the management of airport facilities.
The workers said a more workable alternative should be the commercialisation of FAAN, noting that the agency has not been able to meet the expectations of Nigerians because of government’s interference and erosion of its activities through policy sommersault.

“Nigerian aviation workers have critically analysed the PPP concept as a veritable vehicle to drive the process of engendering revenue growth, quality service delivery and maintenance of facilities, infrastructures and returns on investment and accepted its workability, if driven with good intentions and in a transparent manner.

“Unfortunately for us and given the penchant with which our political class makes pronouncements without deep thoughts, we became deeply worried and hugely concerned about the haste, hush-hush and secret disposition of the minister in actualising this contraption without following due diligence as practiced worldwide while we also observed with grave concern, the deceit and coercion that goes with the current process of concessions, that is lacking in transparency which is hugely required at this moment,” Abioye said.

He said although many believed that the concession of the domestic terminal of the Lagos airport known as MMA2 to Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement was a good example of a successful concession but alleged that the company owed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) N2 billion as follows: Management fee-N331, 088,683.68; fire and safety-N131, 219,451.83; marshaling service-N2, 168,058.21; electricity-N438, 955,342.20; rent and SRC conference-N87, 864,556.06 and hotel-N116, 845,500.00.

The workers insisted that concession is not the solution to the problem of airport facilities management but the commercialisation of FAAN.

“Why not allow the airports to run as commercially oriented profitable concerns with accountability to shareholders, who may be government agencies or private investors, as we had canvassed for the full commercialisation of the FAAN long ago albeit without the usual political, ministerial, presidential official meddlesomeness and interference, which has been the bane of lackluster performance and failure of the aviation system in Nigeria?” The workers asked.