The latest trip embarked upon by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, with some ministry officials and labour leaders to Brazil and Turkey on an inspection tour of two successfully concessioned airports in the countries has elicited mixed feelings amongst key players in the sector.
A statement from the Ministry of Aviation, described the trip as “part of the efforts by the Minister to ensure transparency, inclusiveness, demonstrate sincerity in the airport concession programme and choose the right model.”
According to the statement, the team that visited the Istanbul Airport in Turkey and the Brasilia Airport in Brazil with the Minister included the Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, Captain Alkali Modibbo; the Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Matthew Lawrence Pwajok; the Transaction Adviser on Airport Concession, Dr Abba Ibrahim and the Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Michael Ohiani.
Others are the Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister, Yusuf Anas; Special Assistant to the Minister on Administration, Ahmed Sanusi; Secretary General of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Saidu Abdulrazak and Secretary General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Ocheme Abah.
According to the Minister, the essence of the visit to the two airports was to dispel all doubts and suspicion regarding the sincerity of the Federal Government in respect of the concession programme and to reassure the labour force of the inherent benefits of the programme.
He further said that the choice of the two airports was based on their popularity, size and their success stories in concession which he said would serve as a guide on the concession model and contribute to the successful delivery of the programme.
The Minister equally reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that the principles of transparency and accountability, which he said had been the hallmark of the process from inception, would remain till the final delivery of the project.
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Reactions have however started trailing the trip which stakeholders described as a jamboree coming after the Minister had already gone far with the concession plans before suddenly embarking on the trip.
Many of the stakeholders attributed their pessimism to a similar event which took place in 2018 when the Minister led some officials to London to unveil the livery and logo of the then proposed national carrier at the Farnborough Air Show which ended up wasting millions of Naira as the project met a brick wall until its recent resuscitation.
According to the key players, the money wasted at the Farnborough show should have been used to tackle some of the infrastructural challenges facing the sector.
Speaking on the latest trip to Brazil and Turkey, the Managing Director of Centurion Security and a member of the Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), queried the objectives of the trip at this period.
He said, “I am no longer optimistic about the national carrier or the airports concessions. What we could not do in seven years we began the programmes cannot be done in six months before the forthcoming elections. What are the objectives of the visits to Turkey and Brazil now? Why were the visits not done over five years ago if it was necessary?
“What is the necessity of the visits now? Why have we not called for bidding and invite foreign investors? Was there any foreign trip before the MM2 concession? If there were mistakes in the MM2 concession, do we need to go out for the concession? Did we go out to learn how to go about the concessions of the telecoms, powers, seaports, etc? Whether it is the national carrier or the airport concessions, we need to put them on the table not under the table if they are national assets not private assets.”
While insisting that airports concessions must not leave any airport behind except only the non aeronautical services, Ojikutu said, “The concession of each of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano airports with one million or more passengers traffic should be accompanied by at least four of the others. However, we need to know the estimated earnings of each of the airports so as not to do giveaway concessions. Please don’t keep quiet when the airports are made known to be sold. Let’s shout it out; they are national assets not private assets.”
Many other stakeholders who promised to speak at a later date however expressed confusions over the benefits such trip would make now when such a trip should have been made immediately the concession plan was announced rather than wait till when the government has less than six months in office.
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