Tale of three abandoned projects at Lagos airport

For over 12 years, the Hotel and Conference Centre projects at Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos have remained abandoned over disagreement between the federal government and operators of MMA2, Daily Trust reports

Stakeholders have continued to raise concerns following long years of neglect of the buildings occasioned by the several litigations over the MMA2 concession.

In retrospect, the concession of MMA2 to BASL is the first terminal concession ever carried out in the history of aviation in Nigeria. It was again described as the most hurriedly conducted, thus setting a bad precedence for aviation concession in Nigeria. This was why analysts say any effort to concession airports as being proposed by the federal government without resolving the MMA2 debacle might not see the light of the day.

There have been claims and counterclaims over who is right and wrong between the BASL and FAAN over the concession. BASL, owned by business mogul and legal luminary, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, insists the concession premised on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis was for a period of 36 years contrary to what the company believes is an erroneous impression that the concession was for a period of 12 years.

Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, had since 2015 promised to resolve the disputes over MMA2 concession.

But the seemingly intractable disputes have also contributed to the neglect of the two projects - conference centre and hotel – which the concessionaire initiated almost after the MMA2 concession agreement was finalised.

It would be recalled that Babalakin sought the approval of FAAN to build the two projects and the land was allocated by the latter and work started in 2005. In line with the terms and conditions of the projects, Babalakin was to secure a foreign loan to complete the four-star hotel and conference centre and FAAN was expected to provide a guarantee.

But the project was taken to about 70 per cent completion before it was stalled by funding because, according to sources privy to the matter, Babalakin could not secure the foreign loan to complete the project.

However, on March 2013, FAAN announced that it had terminated the leases granted Babalakin for the development and management of the two projects.

FAAN claimed that it had, in two separate letters, dated April 19, 2012, informed Bi-Courtney that the two leases had been terminated as a result of breaches committed by the company in the agreements it signed with FAAN.

By the said agreements, according to FAAN, the two projects were to be completed in 2008 but FAAN graciously extended the construction period to July, 2009 but that Bi-Courtney still failed to complete the two projects at the expiration of the extended period.

FAAN also claimed that Bi-Courtney had forcefully and illegally acquired part of the premises belonging to Murtala Muhammed Airport School, Ikeja to construct the conference centre, despite protest by the pupils and parents of the school.

However, prior to the takeover, BiCourtney approached the court to secure an order of perpetual injunction restraining FAAN from taking over the properties, arguing that the delay in completion of the projects in the first place was attributable to FAAN’s noncooperation by providing the guarantee to secure the foreign loan and so it could not enforce the terms of the BOT agreement.

On January 2018, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) led by Engr. Chidi Izuwah, the Director-General, visited MMA2 and the sites of the projects, promising to wade into the matter. According to Izuwah, the projects no doubt have had their fair share of challenges, which the commission was not unaware of.

But four years after and almost 15 years into the Hotel and conference centre projects, they remain abandoned with observers, analysts and stakeholders suggesting it was high time government resolved the issues by exploring out-ofcourt settlements.

A former General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye, said the aviation unions objected to the buildings from day one because of the manner the land was taken over from traders and business owners.

He added that when the building started, “we (the unions) raised security issues essentially as it was directly in line of sight to the Presidential lounge.”

“After security scrutiny, it was discovered that a sniper could actually shoot at VIPs at the lounge,” Abioye said.

This line of thought was shared by Group Capt. John Ojikutu, rtd, an aviation analyst, who faulted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for approving the projects in the first place, asking if it was in tandem with the National Civil Aviation Security

Programmes?

“Some of us raised the issues with the responsible authorities in the early 20s, but political power and ego of the associates are stronger than the establishment and the established laws,” he said.

Proffering a way forward, he said, “The solution is to first, respect the position of the court of law on this; that is on the side of Bi-courtney.”

Sheri Kyari, an aviation expert and founder of the Centre for Aviation Safety and Research said government should show political will to deal with the matter and allow it to rest. According to him, government can carry out what he called, ‘buy-back’ of the buildings.

But the NCAA absolved itself of any blame over the abandoned projects, saying there was nothing wrong with citing the buildings where they occupy. Spokesman of NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said while the issue is still in court, NCAA had not breached any provision of its regulations on the hotel project, adding, “Istanbul has a 10-storey building within the terminal used as hotel. Are you saying NCAA should not have allowed development at the airport which would create jobs?”

As the projects remain perpetually abandoned, a real estate expert, Ayo Ibaru, said they (projects) are just two out of 1001 abandoned projects spread across the country as a result of disputes between governments either at state or federal levels and developers.

“This is what you have when government disagrees with the private sector after some kind of arrangement,” he said, adding there must be some kind of agreements to resolve the issues surrounding the multi-billion naira projects.