Stakeholders offer suggestions as FG insists on airport concession

The Federal Government has insisted there is no going back on the plan to concession major international airports in the country.

Daily Trust reports that concessioning of airports is one of the core projects of the present administration which has generated heated controversy and debate in the industry.

Aviation unions have all kicked against the plan, saying concessioning the major airports would not be in their best interest.

The airports to be concessioned in the first phase are the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, and Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

To allay the fears of stakeholders over the planned concession, the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, explained at a function on Friday last week that the concession was not tantamount to outright surrendering of government’s assets to the private sector.

Sen. Sirika said the concession would be for a period of between 25 to 30 years to give the private sector opportunity to efficiently and profitably run the airports.

“The intent and purpose of this government regarding aviation is to concession these airports. We don’t believe that government can run these facilities and run them very well. We must hand them over to the private sector.

“And because we are social democrats in nature, and APC as the government in power, we do not intend to cede the assets completely to private hands. We intend to concession it for a period of 20, 25 or 30 years in such a way that they would be run very well and very efficiently and for the private sector to make their money and for us to get the services that we need as we are leaving the country.”

Currently, the four airports are considered the busiest in the country, generating 80 per cent of the total traffic. The Lagos airport which is the busiest in the country takes almost 70 per cent of the total traffic handling, close to 10 million passengers in a year. But there are divided views on airport concession from unions made up of workers in the industry, especially those of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who are, understandably, apprehensive of what fate lies ahead of them. However, stakeholders insist privatising the airports remain the best way to go, pointing out that the MMA2 private terminal remained the best run airport in Nigeria.

However, the problem with the MMA2 concession to Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), remains the failure of government officials to carry out due diligence before agreeing at the terms of the concession. This is said to be the harbinger of the decade old controversy over BiCourtney.

An aviation analyst and Head of Research and Corporate, Zenith Consult and Travel, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, noted that while public private partnership (PPP) had worked in other sectors, including other modes of transportation, PPPs in aviation had been very messy owing largely to inadequate consultations and failure to carry all stakeholders along.

He said, “It is also a sad realisation that all concessions in the industry have been very messy which is a reflection of the process from the beginning, therefore all parties must be humble enough to accept that at a point in the concession process fairness and transparency which is the hallmark of an efficient concession process was breached.

“The concurrent favorable judgment of Bi-Courtney in court has made me come to the realisation that principal personnel in FAAN and the ministry at the period, when this concession and others were signed, were either compromised or exhibited little knowledge of the legal booby traps in the agreement.

“Those who are to midwife the process such as the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, National Council on Privatization, Due Process Unit, Bureau for Public Procurement, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority FAAN and the Ministry of aviation need to get their acts together and bite when necessary using requisite acts and ensuring transparency from the scratch”.

Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema also reiterated that concession is the way to go. However, he warned that the airports must be concessioned to indigenous businessmen rather than foreigners who, at the end of the day, would take the proceeds out of the country. Also of importance in concessioning, he said, was the need to take care of workers of FAAN who might be affected in the process, adding that he is strongly averse to people losing their jobs.

“I call for the concession of these airports to the indigenous people of Nigeria, not even to outsiders because we have people who can afford them because if you concession to the foreigners, there would be capital flights. Maybe 80 per cent of the money would go out of the country and we will remain impoverished. I support Federal Government’s intention to concession these airports and it should be done very urgently. This is the first thing to be done if we want to grow this country”.