Expert sets agenda for incoming government

AS Nigerians await the coming of a new government, key players in the country’s aviation sector have continue to set agenda for Theo se who will be in charge of the helms of affairs in the different sectors including aviation.

Setting agenda for the incoming government, a former military Commandant at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and aviation security consultant, Group Captain John OladipoOjikutu, retired, cautioned the incoming government against getting involved in  business that it regulates if it wants to succeed in the sector.

Ojikutu while charging the new government to jettison the idea of running a national carrier which the outgoing government for eight years failed to achieve despite the huge public funds already sunk into it, makes case for the establishment of at least two flag carriers consisting of a regional and a continental flag carriers while of the existing airlines should be designated as intercontinental airline.

Any attempt to continue with the national carrier project he said will will end up dying unceremoniously like the defunct Nigeria Airways.

The aviation security consultant task the incoming administration on the need to concession all the airports across the country with none remaining as commercial for government management.

His words: “Each of the international airports must be concession with four of the domestic airports to remove the burden of the management and maintenance from the government except the provision of recoverable intervention funds for capital projects”.

On the controversial aerotropolis project which is the idea of the ongoing minister, Ojikutu cautioned that no part of the planned Aerotropolis must be within any of the airports on the premise that, “it will increase the insecurity of the airports.”

“Aerotropolis must be outside the main airport areas but at the boundaries between the airport services areas and the urban development areas. The aeronautical services for Cargo and General Aviation Terminals should be at the opposite end of the passengers Terminals. Having these on the same sides with the passengers terminals is to heighten the insecurity on the National Aviation Security.”

Under the coming dispensation, the security expert calls for separation of the passengers security from Cargo and General Aviation Services Security.

He expressed reservations for the earlier involvement of the government to establish an aircraft maintenance facility otherwise known in the circle as Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul (MRO) and Aircraft Leasing which he described as private and not in Government Business other than regulations.

“Government should not be in business that it regulates. Anyone who proposes anything different from what am saying here wants the failure of the new administration.

“As it is being planned for the new administration for our government, please, please, discard the idea of a National Carrier but Flag Carriers at least two: one Regional and Continental and the other Intercontinental from the existing Carriers. National Carrier as being envisaged will end up as Government Carrier and die as the Nigeria Airways.

“Concession all the airports with none remaining as commercial for government management. Each of the international airports must be concession with four of the domestic airports to remove the burden of the management and maintenance from the government except the provision of RECOVERABLE intervention funds for capital projects”.