Why FG airports concession project may not work —Saidu

AS the federal government moves to concession some of the major airports across the country, the only way the efforts may become a reality lies in its ability to pay attention to the settlement of the workers before embarking on the project.

A renowned labour leader, who is the General Secretary of Association of Nigeria Aviation Professional (ANAP), AbdulRazaq Saidi, while speaking on the airport concession project warned that any attempt not to address the gratuity of the over 4, 500 airport workers, their entitlements and pension in full before any form of concession is carried out will be an invitation to chaos for the government.

The federal government has said the concession of the country’s airports remained the best alternative to allow for investment in critical infrastructure in the industry.

The unionist cautioned the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN) against listening to the advice of those urging him to go ahead with the concessioning without reaching agreements with the workers who will be negatively affected by the project.

According to Saidu, the workers were already apprehensive of losing their jobs hence, the apathy by majority of the staff especially those from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

His words: “We must understand that issues surrounding the concession of our airports have been going on for a long time now, it has been tabled at the House of Representatives and on the floor of the Senate and we told them at different times that concessioning the country’s airports is not in the interest of the country, it is a security risk, it will expose the country to external aggression.

“The process must be transparent, that was the war we fought with the former minister, Hadi Sirika, who was following the due process until the last stage when the issue of Ethiopia Airlines came up.

“Keyamo must not deviate from the right course; he shouldn’t make the mistake Sirika made by setting up a lot of things that has no bearing on the issues at hand.

“The minister is a legal luminary and he should follow due process, we are not against the concessioning of the airports but due processes must be followed and among the due process is that all the labour matters must be discussed and agreed upon, you can’t run away from that.

The ANAP Scribe who insisted that the unions must be carried along at every stage of the airports concession discussion, declared: The Minister should know because he was a Minister of State for Labour that the secretariats of the unions are the backbone of the unions and not the political heads. Secretariats are the pivots of the unions. You cannot tell us that it will get to a stage in the course of the discussions before they can involve the unions otherwise it will not see the light of the day. It will collapse just as the Sirika system collapsed. The unions must be carried along from the beginning.

The Comrade who used the opportunity to query the absence of the governing board of directors for the agencies remarked: Why have we no put governing board of directors in those parastatals? None of the agencies has an approved updated condition of service for its workers.

“The committee he is going to set up must be a FAAN union-dominated committee, not unions from NCAA or from NAMA because they are not directly affected by the concession and they are not protecting the interest of FAAN workers. Unionism is about the interest of your people. The numerical strength of FAAN workers and the retirees is quite huge.

The workers’ gratuity, entitlement and pension of workers must be discussed in full details before any concession is carried out. How can you say categorically that concession will not sack workers?

I strongly appeal to the Minister to beware of sycophants advising him, he must not clash with aviation workers on this matter. He has been doing wonderful and I desire he finishes well and writes his name in gold.

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