Enugu Airport and matters arising

Each time the two committees in charge of the country’s aviation sector in the National Assembly visit the various agencies under the excuse that they are coming to carry out their safety oversight functions on the agencies, key players in the sector no longer take such visits serious.

This may not be far from the fact that the committees have not been able to convince majority of the key players that they know their roles regarding issues affecting the sector.

Each time they pay the so called visits to the agencies, it is no longer news how the chief executives of the agencies are put under unnecessary pressure by the members of the committees whose presence often leads to abandonment of other major functions by the heads of the parastatals who are not given any breathing space until the committees finish their oversight functions. Little-wonder, stakeholders across the sector no longer regard their visit as useful.

To many across the centre, since the committees have been visiting, nothing concrete has ever come out of their visits except the usual fanfare associated with it while things still remain the same.

This brings to the fore the controversy the status of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, has been generating in the past weeks as the airport has been enmeshed in criticisms following the outburst of the committee members after paying a visit to the airport.

The Joint Committee of the National Assembly after the visit to the airport, expressed worries over what they called the deplorable facilities of some airports in the country particularly the Enugu and Port Harcourt airports.

According to the chairman. Senate committee on aviation, Adamu Aliero: “What we saw in Enugu airport was a very serious infrastructure decay.We saw potholes on the runway and this is very unsafe for aircraft to land. We are surprised that international flights are operating at that airport where there is no running water and the toilets are in bad state.

The outburst of the two aviation committees on the Enugu airport may have stirred the hornet nest as some key players in the sector have come down heavily on the lawmakers who they said have indicted themselves by their position on the state of the airport.

“Specifically, the statement credited to your committee (House Committee) about the poor state of Enugu airport terminal building and the runway in particular is seriously an indictment of the National Assembly and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) whichever way you look at it, debate or defend it.

“It is only three years ago that Enugu airport was declared as an international airport with fiat. That was the time you were as you are still the chairperson of the House committee on aviation and Senator Hope Uzodinma was the chairman in the Senate and Princess Stella Oduah was the minister of aviation. The declaration was done without due diligence for certification by the responsible authority, NCAA. As it were, it is doubtful if the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was involved in the whole process.”

This was the position of the managing director, Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), asking where the committees were when the certification of the airport as an international airport was hurriedly carried out.

Ojikutu particularly expressed worries over the lawmakers oversight functions particularly regarding the development of infrastructure in the aviation sector saying:”Frankly, you all want to ask how and by whom was Enugu Airport certified as meeting International Category status  What has been done to attend to the PH Airport situation and yet it is listed for concession.

To many in the sector today, the lawmakers can not exonerate themselves from the poor state of the Enugu airport, insisting that if they had done the oversight function thoroughly, the shoddy job done at the airport would have been avoided.

Like Ojikutu, many stakeholders are asking about the improvement government put in place on the infrastructure to upgrade the airport in 2014 before it was opened for international flight operations under the nose of the two committees.

Perhaps, the aviation committees did not know that they could not excuse themselves from the myriad of problems confronting not only the airports but the sector in general despite their too many oversight visits to the various airports and the agencies.

One may even be forced to ask for the usefulness of the regular visits if they cannot do their job sincerely when issues of airport infrastructure come up or where were they when the Enugu airport was certified.

Ideally, such a serious item could not have sailed through without an input from them, otherwise what are they over sighting and what is the regular visits to the airports and the sector all about. Let the lawmakers wake up from their slumber and stop shying away from their responsibility.