The recent announcement of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) that it will be spending a whopping N36.5 billion to enhance safety in Nigeria’s airspace has sparked mixed reactions from key players.
Commenting on the development, the Managing Director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), wondered why such a huge amount was being budgeted at a time the country is preparing for elections.
Ojikutu said, “Here we go again; N36 billion for Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria’s Airspace (TRACON) and Safe Tower in an election year. We need to seriously think of what we want to do about the sustainability of our aeronautical facilities and services within the global practices for flight operations or we just want to be spending and spending until we can not find money to spend again.”
He cited how in 2007, N8 billion was spent to buy and install the Safe Tower at Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt Airports and over $56 million spent separately on the same TRACON which was commissioned in 2012 just 10 years ago, which means the TRACON was only 10 years old.
Ojikutu said, “A lot of water went under the two projects which can wash a lot of people away in other climes. I was a member of the Safety Implementation Committee on NAMA, NIMET and NCAT and saw a lot in the manner the government’s intervention funds were sourced and spent on the two aeronautical facilities that we are again budgeting N36 billion for in an election year and about 10 years ago, similar amount was spent.
“We cannot be dolling out public funds into sectors that are supposed to be generating revenues without knowing how much these sectors are generating. Any sector that is not generating sufficient revenue to sustain its services and operations should be merged with a corresponding or relevant services provider.”
He however advised that if the government was still keen on giving out the federal airports for concessions, that only the non aeronautical services of these airports should be given out for concession while the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) must become a commercial holding company for the federal airports.
“The aeronautical services, especially the runway, the taxiways and their associated lighting, should be handed over to NAMA and NAMA therefore should become a commercial company and should be able to execute any project within its revenue and resources.
“Should NAMA not have the financial capability to handle projects such as the TRACON and Safe Tower for sustaining its services, it should approach the bank or government for refundable or recoverable intervention funds and not the type of non refundable intervention funds we saw respectively in 2007 and 2012 for government agencies and private airlines,” he said.
Ojikutu argued further that those in administration of the aviation sector cannot faithfully say how much of these funds had been refunded today saying, “Part of the funds is what AMCON is still sweating about on Aero and Arik. It is not clear what happened to the refund on the interventions given to FAAN, NAMA, NCAT and NIMET.
“Stop this wastage of intervention funds on government agencies that have capacity to generate revenue or give them recoverable funds. Merge those that cannot sustain their services with their earnings with relevant agencies. We cannot continue to be giving unrecoverable funds as dash,” he added.