BEVERLY HILLS, April 19, (THEWILL) – The N10 billion earmarked for the automation of five international airports, Lagos, Enugu, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, is brewing suspicion amongst aviation stakeholders querying the rationale behind expending so much on facilities due for concession.
Just recently, the Federal Government, through the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of N10 billion for these airports already designated for concession by the ministry.
They argue that if the ministry wanted to concession the airports and terminals, was it necessary again for the same ministry to expend such a humongous amount on its automation?
Explaining the basis for the automation, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, had said, the contract was awarded to Arlington Security Nigeria Limited with the timeline of 12 months.
He also said the system would facilitate common use of terminal equipment required for sharing airport resources in accordance with IATA Recommendation 1797.
“This allows flexible sharing of resources for check-in and boarding, such as servers, work stations, associated peripherals between airlines and handling agencies present at the airport,” Sirika said.
He explained that the equipment was new and had not been part of the system provided in Lagos and Abuja before now.
But in his reaction, aviation expert, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, said if the terminal buildings and airports are already slated for concessioning, one will begin to wonder why the government is spending money for someone else to come in and take such terminals.
“Also, at what point did the government decide on this? We never saw any advert, bidding for it and suddenly, a price came out from nowhere and it was approved. The same Federal Executive Council that said they were stopping the national carrier has gone ahead to approve over N20 billion for the same project from palliatives. You are giving N5 billion to those who are living and gave N22 billion to a child that has not been born.”
He averred that there was something wrong in the disposition of cash in the industry of late and the approval from the FEC, insisting that “with this approval, it is assumed concession of the airports is done and dusted for it not to be raised again forever.”
In his view, former Commandant, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd) wondered what the government and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) agreed together as “Airport Management Solutions” for airports security without the agreements of the government security agencies working at the airports.
Making reference to what requirements and demands ICAO expected from member states, Ojikutu advised that Nigeria needed to be careful in awarding the contract in order to guarantee national security, which includes aviation security.
He said: “The amount involved is an amount for consideration by the National Security Council and not by the Ministry of Aviation alone. Note, the $20/passenger for security should not be for aviation, but for the National Security Council’s approval.
He emphasised that the government should not include any aspect of aviation security in any part of the airport concession in whatever form it is given as public offer.
Also an airline operator, Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia, said the issue of concession had been a heated argument for a very long time and not only with this administration.
According to Mshelia, concession had its huge benefits if done rightly and not skewed to favour one interest, adding, “I have always believed in concessioning government interests to private experts and able entrepreneurs if it will create more jobs than present and upgrade facilities to better standard than present.
“This has been the argument in the past and again I support concession, but with the terms above. The property going for concession belongs to the people. You cannot therefore concession and send the people home to be jobless. They will fight you to keep their jobs.
“I agree also no concessionnaire will take over anything in Nigeria without firing people. Let’s fix that problem ourselves first and save the concessionnaire the headache with the unions.”
To the President of Aviation Round Table, Dr. Gbenga Olowo, private sector participation in aviation with this administration remained cloudy.
Listing other areas of concern, Dr. Olowo said the national carrier’s rebirth itself remained a contradiction, adding that, in six years, Arik, Aero and the national carrier remained a mirage.
He noted that the policy statement on the concession of airports to evolve into total private sector participation was not ready in six years while the Ghana Airport Transformation took barely two years.
Olowo said: “One would have expected the Infrastructure Concessioning and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to concession the airports after resolving the many bugging issues already identified by industry experts, workers unions and the general public and utilise these funds on more pressing issues in the sector. Pardon my ignorance.
“I presume the bidding process must have been concluded by ICRC, under whose purview the activity lies if concessioning were to be on course.”
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