“Lawmakers need education on airport management”

Also reacting to comment by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatization, Senator Ben Bruce, former Commandant of Murtala Mohammad International Airport (MMIA), Group Capt. Jonh Ojikutu, rtd, said safety supersedes every other consideration.

He said lawmakers who have stoutly opposed the move need education on airports management, noting that Bruce is a businessman and not a professional.

Ojikutu in a statement on Tuesday said, “Ben Bruce speaks only passionately as a politician and as a businessman not as professional and safety man for aviation. The Abuja airport runway is over 30 years old without any maintenance programmes. Elsewhere, runways are built and managed regularly or periodically with maintenance programmes based on numbers of landings. Not so in Nigeria.

“Every runway that has been repaired in the past in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, etc, airports were all done in the same manner as it is now planned for Abuja; the runways were closed to traffic. Not so however in other climes like the examples given in Gatwick and Accra because these to airports have periodic maintenance based on their maintenance programmes.

“Our lawmakers need some education on how airport operations and its management work for safety purposes and not necessarily for commercial and political purposes”.