Lawmakers Suspend Concession of Airports

•To investigate non-remittances to NHF, utilisation

Adedayo Akinwale and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives has suspended the concession of airports in the country.

The Green Chamber also resolved to probe the concession of airports carried out by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The decision of the House to initiate the probe followed the adoption of a motion moved at plenary yesterday, by Hon. Kama Nkemkanma.

Moving the motion, the lawmaker noted that most viable airports in the country were commissioned to foreign firms through Federal Executive Council (FEC) resolutions that deviated from due process, public accountability and established laws of the land.

He alleged that the eventual outcome of the concession exercise was the enrichment of a few unpatriotic Nigerians and their foreign cohorts at the detriment of Nigerians and the eventual enslavement of these public infrastructures to foreigners for many decades;

Nkemkanma said the country’s major airports in Lagos, Abuja, and Kano have remained consistently subjects of controversies due to entrenched personal interests that undermined the laws of the land, irrespective of the occasional efforts of the anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

He expressed worry that the myopic personal interests of these economic vampires relegated the so called international airports to mere airstrip status after almost seven decades in the industry, and could never be compared with global renowned airports such as Heathrow, Dubai, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Qatar, Vancouver, and others;

The lawmaker said even on the African continent, where one out of every six Africans is a Nigerian population-wise, the South African pairs of Tambo-Johannesburg and Cape Town, Cairo, Casablanca-Morocco and Houari Boumediene in Algeria, have all outpaced Nigeria, while the country also lags behind Kenya, and Ethiopian airlines.

Nkemkanma, expressed concern that the country’s national historical public policy journey from indigenisation, commercialisation, privatisation, public partnerships, concessions and others has fetched us nothing rather than monumental embarrassment, massive corruption, and controversies in the aviation and other sectors.

He said the national public policy journey had led to embarrassment, corruption, and controversies in aviation and other sectors.

The lawmaking stressed that the National Assembly Acts regulate, control, and manage corporations and agencies, including the Federal Airports Authority Act, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission Act, Public Procurement Act, and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Nkemkanma noted that the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), empowers the National Assembly to control the economy, ensuring social justice, equality, and opportunity for citizens.

The House therefore suspended the airport concession in the country, and resolved to, “set-up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the Nigerian Airport concessions and report back within three (3) weeks for further legislative action.”

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives also resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the Non Remittances to National Housing Fund (NHF) and the utilisation of the fund from 2011 till date.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion on the Need to Investigate the Non—Remittance to the National Housing Fund and Utilisation of the Fund from 2011 to date moved by Hon. Zakaria Dauda Nyampa at plenary yesterday.

He recalled that the federal government set up the scheme in 1992, and all Nigerians above 21 years old and working in the economy’s public, private and informal sectors were eligible to register and participate by contributing 2.5 per cent of their monthly incomes.

“Various reasons were provided for the high default rate experienced by the PMBs, demise of the mortgagor, unwillingness of the customers to repay, nonpayment by employer and lack of constant follow-up on the mortgagor, amongst others.

“Concerned that there seems to be a gross default in the utilisation and remittance of the National Housing Fund which constitutes an offence under section 20 of the NHF Act,” he added.