The FAAN fire outbreak and matters arising

The country’s aviation community was last week greeted with the bad news of a massive fire out break which engulfed the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Though the fire which started at about 8.30 am of Tuesday, April 11, 2017 was prevented from spreading by the frantic efforts of fire officers at FAAN and the Lagos State fire department, unfortunately at the end of the incident four major departments were raised down.

The affected departments were the Audit, Commercial, Legal and Corporate Affairs.

While no life was lost there is no doubt that the authority is presently counting losses as regards  financial and material loss it suffered such as important financial documents and other official papers including workers’ certificates that were among items consumed by the mysterious fire.

While  the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, different people have reacted differently to it with the majority suspecting a foul play in the sad development.

It may be too early for anyone to jump to conclusion as to what could be responsible for the fire but obviously the manner the fire broke out has greatly created room for suspicion.

The good thing is that the management has since set up a committee to investigate and unravel the immediate and remote cause of the fire.

By the time this piece is coming out, the committee must be having few days left to tidy up and submit its report but it is not too late to draw the attention of the committee to some issues which may be of help.

First, there is the need for anyone to suspect a foul play in view of the high level of corruption going on not only in FAAN but other government agencies which some people in their move to cover up may decide to cause havoc.

Based on this, there is the need for the committee and the FAAN management to not only look beyond the case of electrical spark that is being taunted but invite people within for questioning.

The need for the committee to unravel the cause of the fire is pertinent to forestall any future heinous acts that may endanger lives and public facilities at other agencies around the airports.

The committee again should prevail on the federal government to urgently empower the FAAN management to build a better headquarters in place of the ramshackle one being bandied as the headquarters of the authority.

The need to have a better and more solid head office becomes necessary for perhaps, if the present office had been solidly built with standard materials, the fire outbreak would have been avoided.

It is sad that the present head office of FAAN is the one built over thirty years ago which is a far departure from the huge revenue being generated to the coffers of government from the place.

It is on record that all the subsequent governments have continued to see FAAN as a piece of the national cake where the powerful come to, to make money under the guise of contracts with little attention paid to its structure.

It can still be recalled that the present Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi during the maiden visit he and the minister of state for aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika made to the FAAN headquarters, called for the construction of a more befitting headquarters for FAAN.

Without doubt, the present head office of FAAN is nothing but a national embarrassment in view of the numerous cubicles being brandied as offices which can be compared to the olden days huts.

The government should use the opportunity created by the fire outbreak to give FAAN a more befitting headquarters that befits its number one gateway airport which will go a long way in making it capable of maximally confronting any future emergency situation.