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Confusion over FG plan to concession four airports

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There was tension at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, on Tuesday, as the aviation unions gathered to map out strategies to use to frustrate the ongoing plans by the Federal Government’s plan to concession the four international airports across the country.

The unions made up of the National Association of Air Transport Employees (NUATE); Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), described the planned airport concession as a crime against the Nigerian people saying the plan must be resisted.

To show their displeasure towards the concession plan, the unions after a world press conference have announced their intention to embark on a nationwide protest against why they called the unsavory machination of the government in the concession plan.

According to them: “These protests shall last as long as the idea to concession Nigerian airports remains alive. In furtherance of the objective, we have sought the support of the NLC, TUC and ULC for the purpose of escalating the processes of engagement and protests. Never again, with the unfortunate mistake of selling off national assets to government officials and their cronies as happened in the electricity sector, shall we allow such to happen in Nigeria. Never again!”

The unions through their representatives: Comrade Ocheme Aba, NUATE, Comrade Frances Akinjole, ATSSSAN, Comrade Abdulrazak Saidu, ANAP and Comrade Rmeka Njolu of NUP, FAAN branch all came hard on the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika in connivance with ICRC to take Nigerians for granted over what they called their failure to go through the required due diligence.

“As stated earlier, the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, brandished, this past Thursday (June 25th 2020) the Certificate of Compliance issued him by the ICRC which purportedly confirms that the Minister has complied with all needed requirements to proceed with the process of concession for the four international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. Therefore, the Minister will now proceed to seek the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for his proposed Outline Business Case (OBC) for the project.

“But it is highly regrettable that both the Minister and the ICRC are engaging in a ruse, and are indeed taking Nigerians for a ride. We can say with authority that everything so far about the issue of concession for the four airports has been single-handedly decided by the Honourable Minister himself, and the ICRC has not carried out any due diligence on to the concession exercise. If it did, the Commission would have discovered wide gulfs of deception in the exercise.

“For example, while the Project Delivery Team (PDT) – which includes the ICRC – was still discussing the issue of Transaction Adviser (TA), the Honourable Minister of Aviation was on-air announcing the approval of FEC of a TA and his fees. Both the TA and the fees were apparently decided solely by the Minister. Up till date, the PDT has not been allowed to take a position on the matter, its effort in that direction being frustrated surreptitiously.

“Also, at the last meeting of the Project Delivery Team, in late 2019, it was decided that the airports’ concession issue be degraded to the bottom of the list of aviation priority projects while upgrading the National Carrier, Aviation Leasing Company, and the Aircraft Maintenance and Repair Organisation for quick delivery. In addition, the ICRC was requested to provide the required components for the OBCs for the upgraded projects which the Commission promised to provide at the next meeting. That next meeting is yet to be called till date. But now, the same ICRC has been said to have issued a Certificate of Compliance (C of C) to the Honourable Minister of Aviation for the Outline Business Case for the concession of four international airports. So we ask, who is fooling who?

“We are compelled by pressing circumstances in the world of aviation in Nigeria to call this press conference to enable us to speak to certain unsettling developments in our industry.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues its relentless march against our lives and livelihood, wreaking untold havoc in aviation. Under this challenging times, the Ministry of aviation insists on the mass movement of employees from Lagos to Abuja in its unheralded bid to relocate the headquarters of aviation agencies and caring nothing about the health and wellbeing of employees. The promised intervention fund for the economic recovery of aviation concerns remains largely in the realm of conjecture, notwithstanding the recent approval of same by the Federal Executive Council. And in the midst of the crisis, we saw the Minister of Aviation dancing to unheard tunes, wearing a strange costume called Certificate of Compliance designed by the Infrastructural Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). This has raised the decibel of the existing cacophony to dizzying heights.”

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