FORMER Director of Engineering Services with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Mohammed Sadiq, has advised the Federal Government not to privatise the Lagos and Abuja International Airports.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sadiq gave the advice while speaking with aviation correspondents on Thursday in Lagos.

NAN reports that the Minister of State for Avia­tion, Capt. Hadi Sirika, had said that the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt airports would be privatised to improve air transportation in the coun­try.

However, Sadiq noted that the concession of such viable airports would not be of benefit to Nigeria because it would reduce the revenue accruing to government, as well as for safety and security rea­sons.

He explained that with improved transparency, which was the hallmark of the President Muham­madu Buhari’s administration, the nation’s airports were capable of operating without capital from gov­ernment.

According to him, FAAN generates N33 billion annually and can contribute 25 per cent of this rev­enue to the government’s account, especially with the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

He added that the ongoing construction of new terminal buildings in the international airports could easily be paid for by FAAN, since it is at a very low interest rate of 2 per cent and payable over 22 years.

Comparing with data from the U.S., he noted that the busiest airport in the world, Hartfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia had an an­nual turnover of $24 billion.

According to him, this is equivalent to about N7.2trillion, which is more than the N6.06trillion budget of Nigeria for 2016.

“It is this economic viability of our airport sys­tem that the economic terrorists are targeting by advocating privatisation of the only viable interna­tional airports, to the detriment of the overall devel­opment of the other airports.

“FAAN has been operating Nigeria’s Single Air­port System by cross-subsidising the smaller air­ports that cannot break even on their own from the revenue generated by the bigger airports.

“If the few (actually two) viable airports are se­lected and concessioned, the other unviable airports are being deliberately killed by the greed of the con­cession advocates.

“This is not in the best interest of the country because most parts of the country will be disadvan­taged by such a policy.

“Out of the 26 airports, including six state-owned airports, only two airports (Murtala Muhammed and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airports) are vi­able,”

“Cherry-picking the viable airports for conces­sioning will make the other airports neglected, unoperational and eventually become moribund,” Sadiq said.