Despite the determination of the Federal Government to continue with the concession plans of four international airports across the country, key players have continued to cast their doubts over the authenticity of the project.
Opponents of the project have attributed their position to what they described as the lack of transparency adopted by the government in the concession policy.
While some have argued against the concession policy on the excuse that the model and the style of packaging being used to achieve the aim lacked transparency and national interest, few people are urging the government to concession on the excuse that only private investors can raise the standards of the airports and still increase revenue generation for the government.
Amidst the controversy, while the government through the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika apart from assuring all key players that the government would not be shortchanged in the concession deal, also promised that no worker from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) would suffer job loss.
While the concession plans continue, stakeholders who had initially threw their weight behind the concession deal have expressed doubt about it citing previous disastrous transactions.
The managing director of Centurion Security Service, Group Captain John Ojikutu, retired, who used to be a strong supporter of the concession policy has retraced his step following what he termed relevant information he found in the concession documents.
“I’m beginning to take a critical look into the planned concessions of four airports against the recent announcements to extend the closing date and the belief of some stakeholders that possibly there are not many willing bidders. My earlier suggestion has been to involve credible Nigerians like Dangote, Otedola, Emeka Ofor, etc but these are building roads not airports. They keep away not to be in contest with the state governors. The foreign investors and those who could be technical partners too are learning from the experiences of Virgin Atlantic/Virgin Nigeria; Dangote/Port Harcourt Refineries; Bi-Courtney/FAAN on MMA2, etc.
“The recent pronouncement by the minister to stop state governments from taking part in the concessions, for me, is not a Federal Government policy but a unilateral decision but the reason for such pronouncements should be stated for the understanding of credible Nigerian investors, foreign investors and technical partners willing to partner with these.
Let me repeat what I have said many times; if you don’t know what you are looking for, you can never find it. Do we really know the True Estimated Earnings annually from these airports not the FAAN reported earnings? If we don’t know and make it public, then we are far away from the figures we are brandishing to the public and possibly the reasons why the credible people are staying away. We must work out a five years infrastructure development plans for each of the airports for the period of the concessions before determining the sharing formula. These efforts are not found in any of the concessions documents that I have seen.
“Secondly, what service facilities or infrastructure are we giving out for concessions? Again, let us avoid future conflicts with the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) and the United States Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) by not involving aeronautical services among the services for concessions. Let us be specific about the non aeronautical services that are going for concessions. Even though it is generally being stated that it is the terminals that are going for concessions, we have no less than four layers of aviation security within each of these airports; what is the plan for it or the plans for the recertification after the concessions? I hope we shall be able to get through the concessions by mid next year and not get it in a closed box like the national carrier.”
Though Ojikutu said he was not totally in support of concession ideas, he however called for the concession of only the non aeronautical services in which the terminal buildings are the only thing specified.
“There are many other services that are common to the various terminal operators especially in Lagos. I just read the Concession documents only to discover the relevant information like I pointed out are missing. I believe we need to continue the probing of the relevant authorities especially the minister. The way we did before they came out to say clearly that the terminal buildings are the one for concessions but what services in the buildings are going along for concessions with the terminal buildings.
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